UC'SB    LIBRARY 


Proceedings  in  Commemoration 

of  the 

One  Hundred  and 
Fiftieth  Anniversary 

of  the 

First  Congregational  Church 

Williamstown,  Massachusetts 


OCTOBER   THE  9TH  AND    10TH 

1915 


THE  REV.  JOHN  DfiPEU,  Minister 


SUN    PRINTING   COMPANY 

PITTSFIELO 

MASSACHUSETTS 

1016 


INTRODUCTION 


In  the  year  1765,  the  Town  of  Williamstown, 
Massachusetts,  was  incorporated  by  act  of  the 
Governor  and  General  Court  of  the  Province  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  in  the  same  year  the  First 
Church  of  Christ  in  the  town  was  organized. 

In  the  annual  town  meeting  of  1914,  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  plan,  if  it  deemed  it  advisable,  for  a 
celebration  of  the  sesquicentennial  of  the  incorporation 
of  the  town.  As  no  general  interest  in  the  subject  was 
manifested,  the  committee  reported  without  making 
recommendations  to  the  annual  meeting  of  1915  and 
the  matter  was  dropped. 

In  the  church  there  was  manifested  a  more  lively 
interest  in  the  anniversary,  and  a  proper  wish  to  do 
honor  to  the  founders  of  the  town  and  church.  In  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  First  Church,  on  January  I, 
1915,  on  motion  of  Deacon  Franklin  Carter,  it  was 
voted:  That  a  committee  of  five,  all  legal  residents 
of  Williamstown,  be  appointed  by  the  pastor,  three  of 
whom  shall  be  members  of  this  church  and  three  of 
whom  shall  be  members  of  the  parish  and  one  of  whom 
shall  be  a  professor  in  the  college,  which  committee 
shall  determine  the  date  and  arrange  for  the  one 
hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  formal  organi- 
zation of  this  church,  and  shall  have  power  to  appoint 
subordinate  committees,  if  they  may  think  such 
necessary,  in  order  to  carry  into  effect  the  plans 
devised  for  the  celebration. 


Page  three 


The  pastor  appointed  as  such  committee:  Mr. 
Charles  S.  Cole,  Mr.  E.  Herbert  Botsford,  Mr.  N. 
Henry  Sabin,  Deacon  Perry  A.  Smedley  and  Mr. 
Henry  D.  Wild,  all  of  the  members  of  the  committee 
being  members  of  both  church  and  parish. 

The  committee  met  on  January  20  and  elected 
Mr.  Charles  S.  Cole,  Chairman,  and  Mr.  E.  Herbert 
Botsford,  Secretary.  At  this  and  subsequent  meetings 
various  suggestions  were  received  and  plans  considered 
for  a  celebration,  more  or  less  elaborate.  Sub-com- 
mittees were  appointed  as  follows : 

Invitations:  Miss  Grace  Perry,  Chairman;  Mrs. 
Samuel  F.  Clarke,  Mr.  Carleton  G.  Smith. 

Entertainment:  Mrs.  E.  Herbert  Botsford,  Chair- 
man; Mrs.  Percy  A.  Chambers,  Mrs.  Charles  S.  Cole, 
Mrs.  George  E.  Howes,  Mrs.  Frederick  E.  Moore. 

Music:  Mrs.  Willard  B.  Clark,  Chairman;  Mrs. 
Garabed  S.  Azhderian. 

Decorations :  Miss  Ruth  M.  Sabin,  Chairman ;  Miss 
Alma  J.  Brookman,  Miss  Lucy  F.  Curtis,  Miss  Alice 
C.  Doughty,  Miss  Estelle  Pulsifer,  Miss  Viola  S. 
Walden. 

Historical  Collection:  Mr.  Perry  A.  Smedley, 
Chairman;  Dr.  Vanderpoel  Adriance,  Miss  Alma  J. 
Brookman,  Miss  Lucy  F.  Curtis,  Miss  Susan  S. 
Hopkins,  Mr.  George  B.  Waterman. 

Finance:  Mr.  N.  Henry  Sabin. 

Ushers:  Mr.  Carleton  G.  Smith,  Chairman;  Mr. 
Ralston  Doughty,  Mr.  Charles  M.  Galusha,  Mr.  G. 
Newell  Galusha. 

Printing:  Mr.  William  F.  Cameron,  Chairman; 
Miss  Grace  Perry,  Mr.  Frederick  C.  Ferry. 

Programme :  The  Rev.  John  DePeu. 


Page  four 


The  various  committees  took  up  their  work  ener- 
getically. The  historical  collection  was  notably  rich. 
The  weather  was  propitious,  the  leaves  being  still 
green  upon  the  trees  and  flowers  still  blooming  in 
gardens  on  October  9  and  10,  when  the  programme 
finally  agreed  upon  was  carried  through  with  much 
enthusiasm.  There  was  a  large  attendance  at  the 
informal  reception  on  Saturday  afternoon,  many 
former  members  of  the  church,  representatives  of  the 
old  families,  and  friends  from  neighboring  towns  being 
present.  The  supper  was  served  by  a  professional 
caterer.  Large  congregations  on  Saturday  evening  and 
on  Sunday  listened  to  the  addresses  which  are  printed 
in  this  volume.  Stenographic  records  of  the  unwritten 
addresses  were  made  by  Miss  Helen  M.  Netherwood 
and  Miss  Stella  H.  Netherwood. 

Rejoicing  over  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of 
the  Right  Hand  of  the  Most  High  thus  celebrated, 
the  church  looks  forward  hopefully  and  prayerfully 
to  more  earnest  and  fruitful  service  in  years  to  come. 
"And  in  the  name  of  our  God  we  will  set  up  our 
banners." 

JOHN  DEPEU,  Minister. 


Page  five 


Copy  of  the  Invitation: 


1765-1915 

THE  FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL,  CHURCH 
\VILLIAMSTOWN,  MASSACHUSETTS 

CELEBRATES  THE 
ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

OF  ITS  ORGANIZATION 

SATURDAY  AND  SUNDAY,  OCTOBER  i-««  NINTH  AND  TENTH 

NINETEEN  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTEEN 


SATURDAY 

4.OO   P.   M.      KECEPTIOW   AJ."I>    SCPPER 

7.3O    P.    M.      ADDHKSSKS 

FOKMKH    PASTORS    OF    THE    CHl'RCH 

SUNDAY 

1O.30   A.   M.      MOHXIXO   -W-OKSEII'    AND    HISTORICAL    ADDHES8 
TBE    REV.    JOHN    DB  PEC,    MINISTER 

4.00    P.   M.      THE    Cf)I.LE(iK    AXD    THE    CHURCH 
DB.    FRANKLIN    CARTER 


YOU  ARE  CORDIALLY  INVITED 
TO  BE  PRESENT. 


Page  six 


Copy  of  the  Programmes: 


Saturday  Afternoon  at  4  o'clock 
Reception  and  Supper 


ORDER  OF  SERVICE 
Saturday  Evening,  7.30  o'clock 

Service  conducted  by  the  Minister,  The  Rev.  John  DePeu 

Organist,  Miss  Rosalie  Smith 
(Organist  of  the  Church  from  1882  to  1895) 

ORGAN  PRELUDE 

SCRIPTURE  LESSON,  Psalm  91 

PRAYER 

HYMN  21,  "How  pleased  and  blest  was  I,"    The  Congregation 

ADDRESSES  BY  FORMER  PASTORS  OF  THE  CHURCH  : 

The  Rev.  Austin  B.  Bassett,  1887-1891 

The  Rev.  William  Slade,  1891-1897 

The  Rev.  Willis  H.  Butler,  1898-1003 

The  Rev.  Francis  T.  Clayton,  1903-1909 

LETTERS  AND  REMINISCENCES 

HYMN  177,  "I  love  Thy  Kingdom,  Lord,"       The  Congregation 

BENEDICTION 

ORGAN  POSTLUDE 


Page  seven 


ORDER  OF  SERVICE 

Sunday  Morning,  10.30  o'clock 


OKGAN  PRELUDE,  Mr.  Douglas  A.  Shepardson 

INVOCATION,  The  Rev.  Austin  B.  Bassett 

OUR  LORD'S  PRAYER,  The  Congregation 

ANTHEM,  "My  soul  longeth,"  Marston 

Miss  Florence  Van  D.  Smith      Mrs.  George  E.  Howes 
Mr.  William  H.  Doughty  Mr.  Leonard  Maier 

PSALTER,  Selection  23,  Psalm  103, 

The  Rev.  William  Slade  and  Congregation 

HYMN  174,  "Glorious  things  of  Thee  are  spoken," 

The  Congregation 

SCRIPTURE  LESSON,  Is.  61  :i-3,  63:7-9;  Rev.  7:9-16, 

The  Rev.  John  M.  McLaren 
Minister  of  the  Second  Congregational  Church,  Williamstown 

PRAYER,  The  Rev.  Thomas  P.  Haig 

Minister  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  White  Oaks,  Williamstown 

OFFERTORY  SOLO,  "Fear  not  ye,  O  Israel,"  Buck 

Mrs.  George  E.  Howes 

DEDICATION  OF  OFFERINGS,  The  Rev.  Willis  H.  Butler 

HYMN  176,  "Oh,  where  are  kings  and  empires  now," 

The  Congregation 

SERMON,  Text,  Proverbs  8 :2,  The  Rev.  John  DePeu 

HYMN  425,  "For  all  Thy  saints,  who  from  their  labors  rest," 

The  Congregation 

PRAYER  AND  BENEDICTION,  The  Rev.  Francis  T.  Clayton 

ORGAN  POSTLUDE,  Mr.  Douglas  A.  Shepardson 


Page  eight 


ORDER  OF  SERVICE 

Sunday  Afternoon,  4.00  o'clock 


The  Minister  of  the  Church,  The  Rev.  John  DePeu,  Presiding 

Organist,  Mr.  Sumner  Salter,  Organist  of  Williams  College 

Double  Quartet  from  Williams  College  Choir 

ORGAN  PRELUDE 

DOUBLE  QUARTET,  "Veni  Creator  Spiritus" 

SCRIPTURE  LESSON,  I  Corinthians,  13 

PRAYER 

HYMN  405,  "Fling  out  the  banner !  let  it  float," 

The  Congregation 

GREETINGS  FROM  THE  WILLIAMSTOWN  CHURCHES  : 
The  Baptist  Church, 

The  Rev.  Ralph  H.  Tibbals,  Pastor 
The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

The  Rev.  John  Duffield,  Pastor 
St.  John's  Episcopal  Church, 

The  Rev.  J.  Franklin  Carter,  Rector 

DOUBLE  QUARTET,  "O,  send  out  Thy  light,"  Buck 

GREETINGS  FROM  WILLIAMS  COLLEGE, 

President  Harry  A.  Garfield,  LL.  D. 

HYMN  173,  "The  Church's  one  foundation,"  The  Congregation 

ADDRESS,  "The  College  and  the  Church," 

Franklin  Carter,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 
President  of  Williams  College,  1881-1901 
Deacon  of  the  Church  from  1910 

HYMN  78,  "O  God,  our  help  in  ages  past,"    The  Congregation 
PRAYER  AND  BENEDICTION 
ORGAN  POSTLUDE 


Page  nine 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  CHARLES  G.  SEWALL 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  Charles  G.  Sewall: 

This  evening  is  to  be  devoted  to  reminiscence. 
Tomorrow,  the  addresses  will  have  to  do  with  the  more 
ancient  history  of  the  church.  Tonight  we  are  to  hear 
from  living  pastors  who  have  served  here  and  who  are 
now  serving  in  other  fields.  The  earliest  of  these 
pastors  who  are  still  living  is  the  Rev.  Albert  C.  Sewall, 
who  served  this  church  and  brought  to  it  abundant 
blessing,  and  to  the  town  equal  benefactions,  from  1872 
to  1886.  By  reason  of  the  infirmity  of  the  flesh,  he  is 
unable  to  be  with  us  tonight,  but  we  have  the  joy  of 
having  with  us  his  son,  the  Rev.  Charles  G.  Sewall,  of 
the  State  Street  Presbyterian  Church  in  Albany,  New 
York.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  mention  tomorrow 
morning  what  the  early  settlers  or  surveyors  of  this 
town  thought  concerning  "gentlemen  from  Albany;" 
but  we  extend  to  Mr.  Sewall  a  more  cordial  welcome 
than  was  given  to  earlier  visitors  from  the  Hudson 
Valley.  Mr.  Sewall  speaks  to  us  as  a  son  of  the  church 
and  as  his  father's  representative. 

The  Rev.  Charles  G.  Sewall: 

I  wish  to  thank  your  pastor  very  heartily  for  his 
cordial  introduction.  I  am  one  of  two  gentlemen  from 
Albany  who  have  been  welcomed  here  today,  and  since 
the  Governor  has  succeeded  in  arriving  in  Williams- 


Page  ten 


THE  REV.  ADDISON  BALLARD  THE  REV.  HENRY  R.  HOISINGTON 

THE  REV.  ALBERT  C.  SEW  ALL 
THE  REV.  MASON  NOBLE  THE  REV.  PERCY  MARTIN 


town  and  departing  in  safety,  I  shall  approach  you  with 
less  fear  and  trembling  than  I  otherwise  would  have 
done  after  Mr.  DePeu's  mention  of  the  ancient  feeling 
toward  Albany. 

I  am  very  glad  that  this  service  has  been  spoken 
of  as  a  service  of  reminiscence,  for  that  has  been  my 
own  mood  all  today,  as  it  doubtless  has  been  yours. 
I  suppose  that  there  are  few  of  you  here,  perhaps  none 
of  you,  who  knew  the  old  Congregational  church 
better  than  I  did.  For  some  years  my  father  had  his 
study  in  the  church  and  I  used  often  to  come  to  visit 
him,  to  do  an  errand,  or  to  see  him  while  he  was 
studying  here.  Later,  I  remember  that  there  was  a 
convenient  cellar  window,  through  which  a  boyish  body 
could  very  easily  wriggle,  which  at  all  times  admitted 
me  to  the  secret  interiors  of  the  church.  With  the 
exception,  therefore,  of  the  small  spire  which  stood  to 
the  east  near  the  entrance,  I  think  there  was  no 
accessible  portion  of  the  building  which  at  some  time 
or  other  my  inquisitive  eyes  did  not  investigate  or  my 
feet  tread.  Consequently,  as  I  come  here  today  it  is 
with  a  real  confusion  of  spirit — so  many  of  my  early 
experiences  and  my  present  dreams  are  clustered  about 
the  familiar  structure  which  stood  on  this  spot.  They 
tell  me  that  this  is  the  same  old  church  that  always 
stood  here;  and  yet,  as  I  look  about  me  and  try  to 
realize  that  this  is  the  building  where  we  used  to 
worship  and  at  times  play,  methinks  my  eyes  deceive 
me.  I  begin  to  understand  what  St.  Paul  meant  when 
he  spoke  about  the  glorified  body  which  one  day  should 
be  our  portion.  If  this  is  the  same  old  church,  it  is 
certainly  a  glorified  body  which  it  now  wears  and  I 
am  sure  that  those  of  us  who  love  it  should  be  proud 
that  it  has  been  so  glorified. 


Page  eleven 


As  I  have  been  gazing  upon  the  portraits  which 
are  displayed  upon  the  wall  in  the  other  room,  very 
precious  and  tender  memories  have  come  to  my  heart. 
I  can  remember  Deacon  Smedley  and  Dr.  Sabin  and 
Dr.  Hopkins  and  Mr.  Smith.  I  cannot  recount  all 
the  names,  but  the  faces  come  to  me.  I  can  remember 
the  pews  they  used  to  sit  in,  and  just  how  the  backs 
of  their  heads  used  to  look  during  sermon-time — that 
long,  tedious  time  while  father  was  preaching.  Now 
they  too  have  their  glorified  body,  and  yet  I  think 
their  spirits  are  with  us  rejoicing  in  what  this  church 
was,  and  what  it  is,  and  what  it  shall  be.  And  that 
suggests  another  thought  which  has  been  uppermost 
in  my  mind  as  I  contemplate  the  changes  which  have 
taken  place,  typified  by  the  pictures  of  the  various 
edifices  in  which  this  church  has  worshipped,  which 
appear  on  the  order  of  worship,  and  as  I  think  of  this 
last  change  which  has  so  glorified  the  material  edifice, 
namely,  that,  despite  these  changes  of  body,  the  spirit 
lives  on.  There  is  only  one  thing  on  earth,  after  all, 
that  approaches  the  immortality  of  the  human  spirit, 
and  that  is  the  immortality  of  an  institution.  In  this 
human  life,  men  come  and  men  go — they  do  their  work 
and  then  pass  on — but  the  institution  abides  and  its 
spirit  is  permanent;  and  through  these  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  this  church,  moved  from  the  old  site 
on  the  hill  to  this  site,  occupying  its  successive  houses 
of  worship,  has  still  gone  on  doing  its  goodly  work 
for  God  and  the  world.  What  a  noble  army  have 
entered  and  left  these  doors!  What  wide  waves  of 
influence  have  broken  even  on  the  farthest  shores  of 
this  benighted  world,  as  the  men  and  women  who 
have  gone  out  with  the  light  from  this  church  have 
carried  their  message  of  life  and  salvation  wherever 
they  have  journeyed! 


Page  twelve 


I  suppose  some  of  our  friends  and  neighbors  who 
are  used  to  the  more  ornate  services  of  their  denomin- 
ations sometimes  look  with  sentiments  akin  to  pity 
upon  the  severity  and  plainness  of  our  Congregational 
structure.  (For  I  speak  of  myself  as  a  Congregation- 
alist.  This  is  the  only  church  I  have  ever  belonged 
to!  I  have  worshipped  in  a  Unitarian  church,  and 
sung  in  an  Episcopal  choir;  for  some  years  I  was 
Reformed;  I  married  a  Baptist  wife,  and  I  am  now  a 
Presbyterian  minister,  but  I  have  never  belonged  to 
any  other  church  than  this,  for  when  I  left  the  member- 
ship of  this  church  I  became  a  member  of  a  Presbytery 
and  have  never  since  been  a  member  of  any  church ! 
So  I  have  the  right  to  speak  in  the  first  person  of  the 
Congregational  denomination!)  But  when  I  think 
of  the  simple  structure  of  the  Congregational  church 
and  the  Congregational  worship,  typified  by  the  sim- 
plicity and  yet  the  beauty  of  this  material  edifice,  I  am 
reminded  of  a  remark  which  was  once  made  of  Galileo's 
telescope;  I  have  been  trying  to  recall  the  exact 
language,  and  I  am  sure  I  have  not  recalled  it  correctly, 
but  the  description  ran  something  like  this :  that  the 
little  telescope  was  "a  simple  contrivance,  crudely 
constructed,  but  mightily  directed  to  the  observing  of 
the  heavens.  As  a  man  watched  through  it,  there  fell 
upon  him  the  shadow  of  God."  And  I  think  something 
similar  might  be  said  of  the  old  Congregational  meet- 
ing house.  It  was  a  simple  structure,  often  seeming 
crude,  and  yet  mightily  adapted  to  scan  the  heavens 
with.  And  that  after  all  is  the  main  part  of  the 
business,  is  it  not  ?  Some  of  us  in  the  other  room  have 
been  interested — shall  I  say  amused? — to  read  some  of 
the  hymns  that  were  perpetrated  for  the  use  of  children 
about  a  hundred  years  ago  and  we  have  been  smiling 
at  the  crudities  of  the  theological  expressions  which 


Page  thirteen 


those  hymns  contained,  typical  of  the  theological 
thought  of  the  times.  And  yet,  my  friends,  through 
those  old  theological  notions,  as  well  as  in  those  crude 
old  meeting  houses,  they  knew  how  to  observe  the 
heavens,  and  so  they  were  mighty,  for  as  they  watched, 
there  fell  upon  them  the  shadow  of  God. 

I  come  here  tonight,  not  for  my  own  sake,  but  in 
the  stead  of  another  whose  name  I  am  proud  to  bear, 
and  I  wish  that  the  mantle  of  his  spirit  might  also 
descend  upon  us.  Many  of  you  remember  him  as 
pastor.  He  was  the  only  pastor  that  I  knew  for  the 
first  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  in  my  life  and  I  can 
say  of  him  what  can  be  said,  I  think,  of  few  men, 
that  as  a  father  his  example  and  influence  were  no  less 
saintly  and  perfect  than  as  a  pastor.  I  have  known 
many  good  men  intimately,  but  I  think  I  have  never 
known  one  who  was  so  consistent  in  his  devotion  and  in 
his  piety,  and  in  the  practical  fruits  of  that  piety.  His 
fourteen  years  among  you,  many  of  you  remember  with 
affection  and  gratitude.  He  gave  of  his  best  to  this 
church  and  this  church  gave  of  its  best  to  him,  and 
I  am  sure  that  I  speak  for  him  when  I  say  that  with 
all  his  heart  he  sends  his  love  to  his  old  friends  in  this 
church.  It  is  a  great  privilege  to  speak  for  him  here 
in  this  presence  and  I  could  wish  only  that  he  were 
here  to  speak  for  himself.  May  God  add  His  blessing 
to  this  honored  and  beloved  church,  its  members  present 
and  to  be.  May  its  work  and  life  for  the  next  hundred 
and  fifty  years  be  worthy  of  the  noble  record  of  this 
last  century  and  a  half.  May  young  men  and  maidens 
continue  to  come  here  to  scan  the  heavens !  May  they 
go  hence  with  the  vision  and  be  not  disobedient  to  it ! 


Page  fourteen 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  AUSTIN  B.  BASSETT 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  Austin  B.  Bassett: 

This  church  has  reason  to  pride  itself  on  its  sons 
whom  it  has  sent  forth  into  the  Christian  ministry. 
It  is  pleasant  to  have  had  the  living  proof  before  us 
tonight. 

Somewhat  early  in  my  service  here  I  attempted  to 
make  an  address  to  children.  A  member  of  the  congre- 
gation, alluding  to  the  address,  said:  "You  ought  to 
have  heard  Mr.  Bassett  preach  to  the  children.  He 
knew  how  to  preach  to  children."  It  is  a  joy  to  me 
that  I  may  perhaps  learn  how,  by  hearing  Mr.  Bassett 
speak  to  the  children  of  the  ancient  church. 

The  Rev.  Austin  B.  Bassett: 

I  find  myself,  dear  friends,  the  representative  of  a 
rather  distant  past  in  appearing  before  you  so  early  in 
this  pageant  of  pastors.  It  is  hard  for  me  to  feel  very 
old  as  I  come  back  to  the  spot  where  I  was  a  student 
and  where  I  began  real  life  as  a  young  minister,  but 
doubtless  I  have  reached  the  age  of  reminiscence,  at 
least  I  am  in  that  mood  tonight.  The  bridge  across  the 
years  is  very  real  to  me — so  real  that  this  afternoon 
as  I  came  along  the  valley  from  the  south  there  were 
perfectly  fresh  in  my  memory  the  emotions, — that  is 
not  too  strong  a  word, — of  which  I  was  conscious 


Page  fifteen 


twenty-eight  years  ago  as  I  came  by  the  same  route  to 
take  up  the  pastorate  here.  They  were  mainly  pleasant 
emotions.  People  used  to  say  to  me  as  I  began  my 
ministry  here  and  went  on  with  it:  "It  must  be  quite 
dreadful  to  preach,  not  to  say  live,  in  a  college  town, 
used  as  the  people  are,  to  the  best  of  oratory ;  and  good 
and  wise  as  are  many  of  the  men  and  women  among 
whom  you  must  daily  move."  I  answered  that  that 
was  the  least  of  my  troubles.  Why  should  I  fear  the 
people  among  whom  I  had  come  to  live  and  work? 
Had  not  their  last  minister  been  with  them  fourteen 
years  and  so  lived  and  taught  and  loved  as  to  make 
the  very  name  of  minister  a  most  gracious  word,  so 
that  anyone  coming  under  that  name  was  sure  of  a 
welcome  and  confidence  and  affection?  And  as  for 
the  others,  the  wise  and  the  eloquent,  were  ever  men 
more  considerate  of  deficiency  and  error,  more 
appreciative  of  the  least  excellence  of  plan  or  word 
or  influence  than  some  who  sat  in  pews  here  or  greeted 
me  from  across  the  campus  and  blessed  my  life  in 
those  few  years  with  their  friendship  and  their  wisdom  ? 
No,  the  emotions  which  I  was  conscious  of  that  day 
and  which  are  fresh  with  me  now  were  rather  of  a 
great  anticipation.  I  already  loved  this  place.  I  knew 
many  of  the  people  by  name  and  face,  some  scraps  of 
family  history,  and  other  factors  in  the  interests  of  a 
town  of  this  kind.  To  be  again  in  contact  with  college 
life  seemed  very  good  to  me.  I  was  glad  to  come  back 
to  scenes  so  congenial  to  myself,  so  hospitable  to  any 
lover  of  nature  and  the  beautiful  in  it.  Of  course  I 
felt  such  misgivings  as  to  methods  and  message  as  are 
becoming  on  the  threshold  of  a  young  man's  ministry. 
But  I  was  chiefly  conscious  of  great  anticipations  of  the 
joy  of  the  work  and  fellowship  in  it,  and  of  the  response 
to  any  message  which  should  echo  the  divine  mind. 


Page  sixteen 


Now  those  things  I  found  here,  and  the  people  did  me 
good  and  not  evil  all  the  days  of  my  abiding  among 
them. 

As  the  years  went  on  I  simply  carried  out,  as  leader, 
the  habits  of  work  of  the  church.  There  was  very 
little  necessity  for  reorganization.  The  skillful  hand 
of  Mr.  Sewall  had  shaped  the  forms  of  the  church  life. 
One  or  two  of  the  organizations  yielded  to  other 
agencies  during  my  years  here.  The  only  things  I 
remember  to  have  formed  were  several  successive 
pastor's  classes  and  a  little  club  of  boys.  A  dozen  or 
so  of  those  lads  used  to  gather  in  my  study  or  in  the 
house  of  some  one  of  them.  We  read  together  Edward 
Everett  Kale's  "In  His  Name."  What  else  we  did  I 
hardly  recall.  I  have  in  my  pocket,  however,  a  half- 
sheet  of  paper  which  shows  in  the  rather  cramped 
handwriting  of  the  secretary,  a  beautiful  boy,  with 
wonderful  black  eyes — I  wish  I  could  see  him  as  a 
man — the  list  of  members  and  the  pledge  to  make  their 
society  a  success  and  helpful  to  others.  One  of  those 
boys  lately  helped  to  reshape  this  house  of  meeting  to 
its  present  rare  beauty;  and  another  is  at  the  head  of 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy. 

The  organizations  were  so  well  led  that  the  minister 
could  only  find  comfort  and  not  care  in  being  pastor 
of  them.  The  Sunday  School  was  under  the  efficient 
superintendence  of  one  who  has  guided  it  much  of  the 
time  since.  The  youngest  children  met  in  a  plain  upper 
room,  replaced  now  by  the  attractive  auxiliary  parts  of 
this  building;  and  there  one  well  known  and  held  in 
affectionate  honor  here  cheerfully  and  tenderly  taught 
those  little  children  to  truly  know  the  One  who  was 
wont  to  meet  his  first  disciples  in  another  upper  room. 
The  societies  of  women  were  under  very  gracious  and 
wise  influence  and  leadership,  that,  for  instance,  of 


Page  seventeen 


Mrs.  Griffin,  and  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  so  profound,  earnest, 
judicious,  devoted;  and  of  more  than  one  Dorcas, 
Priscilla  or  Persis  besides.  What  could  a  young 
minister  add  of  counsel  or  of  plan  when  such  as  they 
were  shaping  that  part  of  the  work?  I  feel  rather 
guilty  at  not  having  tried  harder  to  stir  up  the  men  of 
the  congregation  to  more  concerted  influence  and 
activity.  I  suppose  I  did  not  know  how;  at  any  rate 
not  much  was  done  on  that  line.  But  I  tried  myself  to 
know  the  people  about  here,  and  to  get  close  to  them, 
one  by  one.  Early  in  my  ministry  I  came  upon  this 
remark  of  my  predecessor,  Mr.  Sewall:  "Our  springs 
are  in  the  hills."  It  was  in  one  of  his  annual  reports 
to  the  church.  He  had  in  mind  for  the  moment  the 
welfare  of  this  church,  its  continuous  support  and 
upbuilding;  but  its  mission  also  lay  partly  in  that 
direction,  and  so  I  was  confirmed  in  my  own  impulse 
to  be  a  house-going  minister  to  our  farthest  bounds. 
Part  of  the  time  I  had  the  help  (honor  to  whom  honor 
is  due)  of  a  very  good  horse.  No  road  was  too  long 
for  her  or  for  me  when  on  her  back.  Well  did  she 
play  her  part  in  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  here  and 
elsewhere,  and  it  came  at  no  slow  pace  so  far  as  she 
was  concerned,  I  assure  you.  Afterwards,  people 
would  say:  "Mr.  Bassett,  don't  you  drive  a  rather 
showy  horse  for  a  minister?"  My  answer  was  that, 
according  to  Deacon  Smedley  of  Williamstown,  she 
came  straight  from  heaven  and  ought  to  step  high. 
For  that  affectionate  man,  lifelong  lover  of  the  college 
and  of  this  church,  being  reluctant  to  lose  his  pastor 
and  a  little  biased  toward  me  as  a  classmate  of  a 
favorite  grandson,  had  said:  "You  ought  not  to  go 
away  from  Williamstown;  the  Lord  has  given  you  a 
good  horse  to  help  you  do  missionary  work  among 
these  hills,  and  it  is  flying  in  the  face  of  Providence  to 


Page  eighteen 


go  to  that  huddle  of  Ware,  where  she  will  not  be 
needed."  I  am  happy  to  recall  some  instances  in  which 
that  representative  work  for  the  church  was  not  wholly 
in  vain.  A  number  of  people  came  to  our  services  and 
some  into  the  membership  of  the  church,  thanks  partly 
to  Dolly  and  to  me. 

Some  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  children  and 
what  was  done  for  them.  What  a  joy  it  was  to  have 
them  about  us,  to  know  them  all  and  to  feel  that  they 
were  not  afraid  of  the  minister,  perhaps  even  loved 
him,  at  any  rate  listened  to  him  with  apparent  willing- 
ness. I  see  now  at  the  other  end  of  the  church  a  man 
who  sat  without  visible  pain  through  many  a  children's 
sermon,  with  a  row  of  brothers  beside  him — right  down 
here  in  the  old  seating  arrangement  of  the  church. 
A  good  deal  of  emphasis  was  laid  upon  the  Children's 
Day  service  and  the  recognition  of  their  place  in  the 
church  by  baptism  and  by  the  giving  of  Bibles.  It 
was  my  privilege  to  receive  a  good  number  of  the  older 
boys  and  girls  into  church  membership. 

As  for  the  formal  services  of  the  church,  there  I 
had  trouble — not  from  my  hearers,  but  from  my  own 
mind.  The  bell  rang  often.  We  had  preaching 
services  twice  on  Sunday.  But  I  found  relief  in 
various  directions,  and  the  congregation  too.  I  was 
frequently  invited  by  neighboring  ministers  to  exchange 
with  them.  Usually  they  preached  better  than  I.  A 
few  times  I  was  told  they  did  not  preach  so  well.  "We 
ought  to  get  something  to  boot,"  was  the  phrase.  One 
well-wisher  gave  me  this  sage  advice :  "Exchange  often ; 
you  are  a  beginner  and  are  doing  a  great  deal ;  and  you 
need  not  take  pains  always  to  get  a  better  preacher 
than  yourself."  There  were  other  forms  of  relief. 
Sometimes  the  morning  preacher  in  the  college  pulpit 
would  favor  us  of  an  evening.  Once  a  year  we  had  a 


Page  nineteen 


meeting  of  the  Williamstown  Bible  Society.  I  remem- 
ber my  inward  confusion  on  one  or  two  of  those 
occasions.  Fancy  my  state  of  mind  when  Professor 
Perry  was  speaking  before  me  and  Dr.  Bascom  was 
to  speak  after  me,  or  when  Professor  Tucker,  then  of 
Andover  Seminary,  was  also  on  the  platform.  There 
were  some  great  occasions.  The  church  was  fullest,  as 
I  recall  it,  on  a  certain  Commencement  Sunday  morning 
when  Phillips  Brooks  addressed  the  Christian  Associa- 
tion of  the  college.  As  I  met  him  in  the  lecture  room 
he  said:  "I  am  going  to  read  a  sermon  this  morning, 
and  I  have  arranged  the  pulpit  a  little."  Going  into 
the  church  I  found  that  a  wondrous  tower  had  been 
built  of  foot-stools  and  books  with  a  seemly  red  cloth 
over  all.  I  had  to  stand  at  one  side  for  my  part  of  the 
service  or  else  be  quite  invisible,  and  to  beg  him  to 
read  the  Scripture  lesson.  He  obligingly  raced  through 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  John,  and  then  held  the 
congregation  breathless  with  his  noble  sermon  on  the 
"Light  of  the  World."  There  was  an  evening  when 
the  humorous  Mr.  Puddefoot  spoke.  The  church  was 
full,  the  students  having  got  a  taste  of  him  in  the 
forenoon.  There  was  present  in  the  congregation  an 
elderly  woman  who  spent  a  number  of  years  here. 
She  was  an  Episcopalian,  but  she  came  frequently  to 
our  services.  She  was  immensely  interested  in  Mr. 
Puddefoot's  stirring  story  of  church  planting  on  the 
frontier,  and  made  a  contribution  to  constitute  herself 
and  perhaps  others,  members  of  the  American  (now 
Congregational)  Home  Missionary  Society,  of  whose 
work  she  had  known  little  or  nothing  until  that  day. 
Some  years  later  she  met  a  tragic  death  in  England, 
and  it  was  found  that  her  will  provided  a  bequest  of 
$10,000  to  that  society.  So  the  lot  of  our  church- 
going  people  was  lightened.  But  still  first  and  last 


Page  twenty 


they  were  patient  with  numerous  sermons  of  mine  but 
poorly  adapted,  as  I  well  knew,  to  persuade  or  cheer 
or  edify.  Yet  I  would  like  to  say  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  church  that  has  so  long  maintained  the 
ministry  of  the  Gospel  here,  that  it  did  something  after 
all  through  its  agent  in  those  years,  of  which  a  few 
little  signs  have  since  come  back  to  me.  A  few  months 
ago  I  was  at  a  Williams  dinner  in  Springfield  and  sat 
next  to  a  graduate  of  the  college  who  had  been  a 
student  during  my  pastorate.  He  asked  me  if  I 
remembered  a  sermon  preached  one  Sunday  evening 
in  his  Freshman  year  on  "Hannington,  the  Martyr 
Bishop  of  Uganda."  I  recalled  it  as  one  of  a  series  of 
missionary  lectures.  We  had  something  of  the  kind 
once  each  month.  "Well,"  he  said,  "that  is  the  one 
sermon  I  remember  from  my  youth;  and  it  impressed 
me  so  deeply  that  only  two  years  ago  I  sent  for  the 
Life  of  Hannington  to  give  to  my  sons  who  are  now 
in  the  high  school."  Such  a  thing  is  properly  gratifying, 
as  an  indication  of  what  a  church  is  all  the  time 
unconsciously  doing  for  one  or  another  who  may  enter 
its  doors. 

Our  relations  with  the  college  during  those  years 
were  most  helpful  to  me.  There  was  a  Bible  class  of 
students  in  our  Sunday  School,  taught  for  several 
years  by  some  member  of  the  college  faculty.  The  boys 
lent  a  hand  in  our  young  people's  work.  I  liked  going 
with  some  of  them  to  hold  religious  meetings  at  White 
Oaks  and  in  distant  school-houses.  The  minister  was 
invited  to  the  college  pulpit  now  and  then;  and 
remembers  gratefully  a  prompt  and  cordial  welcome 
by  the  college  pastor  to  "the  whole  opportunity  here." 
Our  social  meeting  on  the  Day  of  Prayer  for  Colleges 
comes  to  my  mind  vividly  now  as  one  of  the  most 
impressive  and  interesting  of  our  contacts  with  our 


Page  twenty-one 


college  neighbors.  The  influences  of  a  personal  kind 
which  I  was  conscious  of  draw  from  me  most 
affectionate  and  grateful  reference.  In  mentioning 
one  or  two  names  I  do  not  forget  others  who  have 
passed  beyond  our  sight,  or  some  still  living  whose 
friendship  and  whose  counsel  have  been  real  forces 
with  me.  How  could  one  say  enough  of  the  stimulus 
of  the  presence  in  the  congregation  and  social  meetings 
of  Dr.  Bascom !  I  fancy  that  powerful  man  was  about 
at  his  best  when  sometimes  in  his  prayer-meeting 
remarks  affection  rose  with  intellect  into  a  union  not 
always  visible  in  him.  I  can  see  his  eye  flash  in  the 
movement  of  his  thought,  and  then  glisten  with  devout 
feeling.  Once  more  his  firm  tones  soften  to  a  note  of 
sympathy.  The  elevation  of  his  thought  lifts  me  again, 
though  memory  may  have  lost  his  words.  His  breadth 
of  view  beckoned  our  thoughts  outward  and  his 
stalwart  faith  strengthened  our  sense  of  spiritual 
realities.  I  recall  this  cogent  hint  of  his  to  others : 
"A  prayer  meeting,  far  from  being  a  burden,  ought  to 
give  the  minister  half  his  next  Sunday's  sermon." 
Full  generously  he  made  his  contribution  and  without 
the  least  air  of  domination.  I  shall  always  treasure  a 
certain  mental  photograph  of  the  courtly  figure  and 
gracious  countenance  of  the  Hon.  Joseph  White  as  he 
stood  at  my  door  early  one  morning.  He  had  come  to 
make  amends  for  some  words  of  his  which  he  feared 
might  have  hurt  my  feelings.  It  was  the  slightest 
matter — I  cannot  remember  what.  But  to  have  a 
man  so  full  of  years  and  of  honors  and  of  graces  of 
character  come  to  me  with  an  apology  was  quite 
overwhelming.  Do  you  wonder  that  my  heart  was 
bound  to  him,  and  that  his  tender,  humble  prayers  still 
illustrate  certain  of  the  beatitudes  to  me? 


Page  twenty-two 


Now  I  think  it  is  a  good  deal  for  any  church  to 
part  with  a  minister  without  having  taken  from  him 
any  of  his  zest,  or  weakened  his  confidence  in  his 
fellowmen,  or  in  the  least  embittered  his  spirit.  I  went 
from  you  here,  from  those  who  were  the  you  of  those 
days,  with  only  affectionate  and  pleasant  memories, 
with  the  sound  and  echo  of  only  friendly  and  sympa- 
thetic words.  Those  memories  and  expressions  were  of 
a  kind  to  cheer  and  spur  me  on  as  I  went  to  a  more 
populous  community  and,  as  I  thought,  to  a  work  in 
which  I  could  count  for  more.  So  I  am  thankful  to 
God  for  you  and  those  who  before  you  or  with  you 
made  up  the  people  who  called  me  to  the  ministry 
here;  wrought  with  me  and  bore  with  me;  and  then 
gave  me  good  will  and  God  speed  for  other  service. 


Page  twenty-three 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  WILLIAM  SLADE 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  William  Slade: 

Mr.  Bassett  speaks  of  the  sorry  plight  of  a  man  who 
had  to  speak  with  Professor  Perry  speaking  before  him 
and  Dr.  Bascom  to  speak  after  him  and  Professor 
Tucker  also  on  the  platform;  but  think  of  poor  Mr. 
Slade's  plight  with  Mr.  Bassett  speaking  before  him 
and  Mr.  Butler  to  speak  after  him  and  Mr.  Clayton  also 
on  the  platform.  Just  to  ease  the  situation  and  to  give 
a  moment's  rest  which  these  young  ladies  who  are 
taking  notes  will  probably  appreciate,  we  will  introduce 
here  a  hymn  that  is  not  down  on  the  programme.  We 
will  sing  hymn  No.  355. 

The  Rev.  William  Slade: 

Let  us  talk  together  as  if  we  were  around  the 
evening  fire. 

There  is  one  institution  dearer  than  the  church. 
It  is  the  home  and  here  our  home  began.  The  woman 
who  has  been  the  joy  and  crown  of  my  life  came  here 
and  we  built  the  home  together.  Here  with  your 
constant  love  and  interest  we  set  out  upon  the  journey 
together.  This  is  the  first  delightful  memory  that 
comes  to  me  tonight.  Here  our  boy  was  born,  who  is 
now  six  feet  in  length  and  a  Junior  in  college.  How 
fast  the  years  go  on  and  how  fast  the  boys  and  girls 
grow !  That  is  evident  from  the  boys  and  girls  we  left 
here.  Can  you  believe  it!  They  have  here  and  there 
a  gray  hair  upon  their  heads. 


Page  twenty-four 


From  my  home  I  went  to  your  homes  over  the  hills 
and  into  the  valleys,  all  kinds  of  homes  opening 
their  doors  to  me.  And  from  everyone  I  received 
expressions  of  good  will,  instruction  from  human  life, 
light  from  human  experiences,  that  have  been  for  me 
better  than  books,  finer  than  philosophy. 

The  church  has  for  its  encouragement  the  passage 
in  the  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  "All  things  are  yours ; 
whether  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas,  or  the  world,  or 
life,  or  death,  or  things  present,  or  things  to  come;  all 
are  yours ;  and  ye  are  Christ's."  These  names,  Paul, 
Apollos,  Cephas,  represent  to  my  mind  the  variety  of 
life  that  is  fashioned  into  the  church  and  it  is  from 
that  standpoint  that  I  wish  to  speak  in  memory  of  this 
church  as  I  knew  it  in  the  six  years  of  my  pastorate. 

Let  me  call  to  mind  the  contrasts  in  individuality 
and  gifts  that  were  bound  together  in  the  bundle  of 
this  church. 

Mr.  James  White  met  me  at  the  station  when  I 
came  here  for  my  first  sermon.  He  was  a  shrewd 
and  honest  man.  He  watched  my  work  and  was  frankly 
my  adviser  and  freely  my  brother.  At  Whittier's 
death  I  endeavored  one  Sunday  evening  to  recall  his 
contribution  to  American  life,  reading  here  and  there 
a  poem ;  and  from  his  practical  view  of  life  Mr.  White 
informed  me  that  it  was  one  of  the  poorest  things  I 
ever  did.  I  have  no  doubt  it  was.  I  had  a  silver  watch 
that  weighed  a  good  deal  and  was  not  very  reliable. 
Mr.  White  thought  it  was  not  the  kind  of  watch  for 
me  to  carry,  so  he  brought  me,  one  Christmas  day,  this 
watch  which  has  reminded  me  of  his  affection  ever 
since.  How  much  that  man  did  for  this  church  we  do 
not  readily  realize.  He  was  the  sort  of  man  that 
every  church  needs  and  to  him  this  church  is  especially 
indebted. 


Page  twenty-five 


One  of  my  good  friends  came  to  my  house  and 
found  me  sawing  wood.  It  seemed  to  him  quite 
beneath  the  dignity  of  the  preacher  to  saw  wood.  Down 
from  the  hills  a  few  days  afterwards  came  a  fine  old 
Scotch  farmer  and  found  me  swinging  a  scythe, 
endeavoring  to  keep  my  grounds  in  as  good  order  as 
those  of  my  neighbors ;  and  he  said :  "I  am  glad  we  have 
a  minister  who  can  work." 

You  remember  Mrs.  Smedley,  the  good  old  white- 
haired  woman.  She  had  not  heard  a  prayer  for  many 
a  day  and  much  to  my  confusion  she  asked  me  to  offer 
prayer  into  her  ear  trumpet,  which  I  reverently  did. 
You  remember  the  Catholic  woman  who  came,  all 
earnestness  and  enthusiasm,  into  the  membership  of 
this  church.  I  went  to  call  on  her  one  day  and  found 
her  bundled  up  in  bed  without  a  spark  of  fire  in  the 
house  and  she  wanted  me  to  pray  for  her.  I  knew  that 
was  the  side  of  her  life  that  was  exaggerated,  so  I  said : 
"I  am  not  going  to  offer  prayer  here  today,  I  am  going 
to  saw  some  wood  and  build  you  a  fire  and  make  you 
comfortable." 

You  see  how  I  went  this  way  and  that,  staggering 
along  amidst  the  variety  of  life  which  I  found  here. 

At  the  prayer  meeting  one  night  a  brother,  over- 
burdened with  physical  weakness  and  old  age,  arose 
and  told  us,  speaking  especially  to  the  young  people 
present,  not  to  build  our  hopes  too  high,  not  to  expect 
too  much  for  we  would  be  so  often  disappointed. 
Dr.  Bascom  sprang  to  his  feet  and  began :  "Young  men, 
pitch  your  tents  far  out  into  the  unattainable!"  Then 
he  went  on  as  he  was  able  to  do,  defending  the  great 
buoyant,  hopeful,  and  invincible  life.  Dr.  Bascom 
interpreted  to  us  all  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Christianity.  I  cannot  express  to  you  how  much  I  owe 
to  those  deep  interpretations  of  life  that  is  life  indeed 


Page  twenty-six 


which  sprang  so  naturally  to  his  lips  in  those  evening 
prayer  meetings. 

And  then  there  was  the  fervor  of  Dr.  Woodbridge, 
a  flame  that  burned  itself  out  so  irresistibly  and  so 
early.  Nothing  seemed  to  stop  him  and  his  ambition 
to  retrieve  the  world  from  evil.  How  sacrificially  he 
and  his  wife  ministered  to  us  all  and  especially  to  their 
beloved  charge,  the  district  of  White  Oaks. 

What  contrasting  brotherhood  we  had  in  those 
days !  What  eager  devotion  to  those  ideals  of  life  that 
sprang  to  their  minds  and  from  their  hearts !  You 
have  all  gathered  fruit  from  these  honest  and  noble 
lives  and  blessed  be  the  tie  that  has  bound  them  all 
together  in  the  history  of  this  church. 

Let  us  not  forget  the  choir,  offering  to  us,  under 
Mrs.  Seeley's  leadership,  on  those  Sunday  evenings  the 
musical  service  that  did  us  so  much  good.  Nor  shall 
we  forget  those  gifts  to  worship  from  the  field  and  the 
garden  presented  here  to  our  eyes  constantly  by  the 
deft  fingers  of  the  woman  who  still  serves  the  church 
in  this  way. 

The  pastor  knows  so  much  more  about  his  people 
than  you  do.  He  has  a  revelation  of  the  variety  of 
human  life;  he  sees  its  intellectual  worth,  its  emotional 
value,  its  consecration  of  talent,  its  service  in  common 
forms. 

There  was  no  man  who  more  profoundly  perceived 
the  value  of  variegated  human  nature  than  Henry  B. 
Curtis,  the  carpenter.  He  had  no  faculty  at  making 
money.  He  had  good  faculty  at  building  churches. 
He  told  me  he  had  built  seven.  When  I  came  here  the 
pulpit  had  "horns"  which  interfered  with  the  preacher's 
freedom,  and  I  said  to  Mr.  Curtis:  "Cannot  the  desk 
be  made  more  convenient  and  still  attractive  ?"  He  said : 
"I  think  it  can;"  and  he  went  to  work  with  saw  and 


Page  twenty-seven 


hammer  and  so  skillfully  did  he  put  the  pulpit  in  shape 
that  the  congregation  did  not  realize  that  any  change 
had  been  made,  but  the  pastor  found  himself  in  a  much 
more  comfortable  place  to  read  and  speak.  How  he 
cheered  me  with  those  quiet  words  of  his!  How  he 
looked  through  the  theoretical  and  sometimes  bookish 
life  of  this  community,  deep  into  human  nature  as  it 
is,  believing  in  its  fundamental  goodness,  trusting  it 
with  brotherly  hopefulness — the  power  of  common 
sense  in  the  church.  Nothing  is  more  valuable  to  the 
pastor,  especially  in  his  youth,  than  the  counsels  of  the 
common  man  speaking  out  of  his  common  sense  in  an 
understanding  of  human  life  as  it  is.  He  is  the  man 
who  gets  at  reality,  the  very  thing  that  the  pastor  and 
preacher  needs  beneath  his  feet. 

The  President  of  Williams  College,  who  still  serves 
this  church,  though  his  presidency  has  ceased  for  the 
college,  was  a  good  friend  to  me.  His  wise  words  and 
kindly  sympathy  helped  me  much. 

I  will  not  go  on  further  in  memory.  I  wish,  how- 
ever, to  say  one  thing  to  the  young  people*  for  a 
minister  must  keep  at  his  business  of  talking  straight 
to  men's  hearts  and  consciences.  I  see  as  I  go  about 
the  streets  that  the  trees  have  grown  fast  and  stretched 
out  their  branches.  Other  trees  have  been  set  about  your 
homes,  the  shrubs  have  grown  luxuriantly.  You  are 
in  danger  of  shutting  off  the  view  of  the  mountains. 
I  miss  the  vistas.  You  remember  on  Greylock  some 
twenty  years  ago  there  was  a  point  to  which  you  might 
go  and  look  away  and  away  through  what  was  called 
the  Vista.  That  is  what  we  need  here  always  from  this 
beautiful  village  out  upon  the  mountains  and  the  distant 
valleys  and  out  upon  the  stars  at  night  and  that,  young 
people,  is  what  you  need  as  you  look  forth  from  the 
luxurious  modern  life  of  the  present  hour.  Move  aside 


Page  twenty-eight 


all  the  comfort  and  luxury  of  America,  sweep  away  all 
eulogy  and  praise,  however  much  deserved,  and  look 
ahead  across  this  world.  See  the  stretch  of  your 
opportunity.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  can  do  much 
but  the  future  calls  you  to  do  more.  Let  no  present 
attainment,  no  wealth  of  talent  or  beauty  of  investiture 
or  accumulation  of  comfort  in  human  life  blind  your 
eyes  to  bare  places  in  the  distance,  the  smoke  and  fire 
of  war,  to  the  needs  of  men  everywhere.  If  history 
amounts  to  anything,  it  is  simply  to  lift  us  up  where 
we  can  see  further  and  do  better  work.  Is  not  this  our 
hour  for  outlook  from  the  advantage  of  past  experience 
into  the  spacious  hungry  future?  What  would  these 
men  say  to  you  tonight  if  they  might  speak?  They 
would  say :  "Forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind  and 
stretching  forward  to  the  things  that  are  before,  press 
on  toward  the  goal  unto  the  prize  of  the  high  calling 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 


Page  twenty-nine 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  WILLIS  H.  BUTLER 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  Willis  H.  Butler: 

Among  the  stories  in  verse  that  are  dear  to  child- 
hood and  maturity  is  that  one  which  narrates  how  a 
certain  wedding  guest  was  held  up  by  an  Ancient 
Mariner  and  so  missed  the  wedding.  Mr.  Butler,  the 
next  speaker,  took  no  such  chances  as  that  wedding 
guest.  He  brings  the  proof,  in  his  button-hole  as  you 
will  see.  He  knows  that  the  holding  power  of  this 
ancient  church  in  Williamstown  is  mightier  than  any 
that  was  ever  possessed  by  any  ancient  mariner,  and  has 
already  attended  the  wedding.  It  may  not  be  known 
to  all  that  the  ladies  of  the  church  nominated  Mr. 
Butler  for  the  pastorate.  In  1898  there  was  a  departure 
from  the  fixed  customs  of  the  church  and  the  committee 
that  was  appointed  to  seek  a  new  pastor  was 
composed  with  a  majority  of  its  members  women. 
They  selected  Mr.  Butler  and  the  men  were  fully  satis- 
fied. Our  pro-suffrage  friends  may  use  the  illustration 
at  will. 

The  Rev.  Willis  H.  Butler: 

In  one  of  Saint  Paul's  letters  the  Christians  who 
lived  at  Ephesus  are  referred  to  as  "Members  of  the 
household  of  God."  The  church  is  likened  to  a  family. 
Whenever  I  think  of  the  First  Congregational  Church 
of  Williamstown  it  is  more  as  a  family  than  as  an 


Page  thirty 


ecclesiastical  organization..  The  ideal  Christian 
church  is  a  family  on  a  large  scale.  Its  members  are 
connected  one  with  another  not  merely  by  their  vows, 
but  by  the  relationship  which  they  sustain  to  the 
great  Head  of  the  Church.  For  His  sake,  if  for  no 
other  reason,  they  should  bear  with  one  another's 
failings,  help  one  another's  weaknesses,  sympathize 
with  one  another's  sufferings  and  rejoice  in  one 
another's  successes.  Wherever  these  conditions  exist 
— in  other  words,  wherever  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  makes 
men  forget  their  circumstantial  differences  and  causes 
each  to  contribute  gladly  his  own  gift  to  the  common 
service — there  you  have  the  foundation  of  a  Christian 
church.  Without  such  a  foundation  it  cannot  stand  for 
any  great  length  of  time,  no  matter  how  perfect  may 
be  its  organization. 

On  an  occasion  like  this,  one  might  appropriately 
recite  some  of  the  facts  which  are  connected  with  the 
history  of  the  church  whose  one  hundred  and  fiftieth 
anniversary  we  are  celebrating.  With  these  facts  some 
of  you  are  already  familiar.  With  one  or  two  possible 
exceptions,  its  life  has  been  marked  by  no  extra- 
ordinary events.  It  has  done  its  work  quietly  and 
steadily,  adjusting  itself  to  continually  changing 
conditions,  both  social  and  intellectual,  and  it  has 
successfully  ministered  to  the  religious  needs  of  the 
community.  Instead  of  reviewing  the  external  way- 
marks  of  its  history,  suppose  we  consider  the  interior 
spirit  which  has  animated  its  members  and  character- 
ized its  life. 

i.  The  missionary  spirit  has  always  been  promi- 
nent. Translated  into  everyday  speech,  the  missionary 
spirit  means  generosity.  An  institution  exists,  a  family 
lives.  That  this  has  been  and  continues  to  be  a  live 
church  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  it  has  not 


Page  thirty-one 


lived  for  itself  alone.  The  unusual  record  of  gifts  to 
the  missionary  agencies  of  the  denomination,  especially 
to  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions,  as  well  as  the  assistance  cheerfully  given 
to  sister  churches,  to  noble  causes  and  to  unfortunate 
individuals,  furnish  indisputable  evidence  of  this  fact. 

2.  The  life  of  this  church  has  also  been  marked 
by   a   democratic    spirit.     In   some    of    our   colonial 
churches,  a  person's  position  in  the  community  was 
indicated  by  the  location  of  his  pew.     The  place  of 
honor  was  given  to  the  aged;  the  size  of  one's  estate 
was  the  next  thing  to  be  considered,  and  in  assigning 
the  seats  which  remained  the  committee  appointed  for 
the  purpose  was  instructed  "to  have  some  regard  for 
men's  usefulness."    Regardless  of  the  location  of  their 
pews,  it  has  always  been  the  purpose  of  the  members 
of    this    church    to    make    people    feel    that    while 
worshipping  here  they  are  "no  more  strangers  and 
sojourners,  but  fellow  citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of 
the  household  of  God."    It  was  with  no  little  fear  and 
trembling  that  I  came  from  the  theological  seminary 
to  minister  to  a  church  made  up  of  college  professors 
and  students,  summer  residents  and  townsfolk,  but  I 
soon     discovered,     to     my     great     relief,     that     the 
distinctions   which   separate  one   from   another  were 
overlooked  and  ignored  when  we  met  together  in  the 
sight  of  Him  who  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 

3.  One  who   reads  the   records   of  this   church 
cannot    fail   to   be   impressed   by   the  loyalty   of   its 
members.    They  have  been  loyal  to  the  truth  as  they 
have  perceived  it,  and  as  it  has  been  formulated  in  the 
doctrines  of  our  faith.    They  have  been  loyal  to  their 
leaders,  whom  they  have   faithfully  supported,  with 
whose  work  they  have  heartily  co-operated.    They  have 
been  loyal  to  one  another.     Individual  differences  of 


Page  thirty-two 


opinion  have  never  been  allowed  to  injure  the  welfare 
of  the  whole  family.  This  church  has  been  singularly 
free  from  factions  which,  in  too  many  cases,  have 
brought  disgrace  upon  the  name  of  Christ.  A  people's 
loyalty  to  the  church  is  proven  when  it  is  without  a 
minister,  and  in  such  periods,  which  have  been 
frequent  and  sometimes  of  Jong  duration,  the  members 
of  this  church  have  bravely  stood  the  test. 

The  men  and  women  who  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago  set  up  this  altar,  would  find  many  changes 
in  faith  and  practice  were  they  to  return  today,  some 
of  which  they  might  not  approve.  But  I  believe  they 
would  soon  feel  at  home  among  us,  for  they  would 
quickly  discover  that  the  same  spirit  which  character- 
ized their  work  animates  the  life  of  this  church  today — 
a  generous,  democratic,  loyal  spirit.  And  may  God 
grant  that  among  the  changes  which  the  future  is  bound 
to  bring,  these  may  continue  to  be  the  marks  by  which 
the  members  of  this  household  of  God  shall  be 
recognized. 


Page  thirty-three 


ADDRESS  OF 
THE  REV.  FRANCIS  T.  CLAYTON 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  Francis  T.  Clayton: 

Somehow  we  have  a  way  of  reckoning  time  by  tens 
and  hundreds  and  are  not  surprised  if  history  repeats 
itself  in  some  fashion  as  the  centuries  come  around. 
The  first  pastor  of  the  church  whose  installation  fell  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  was  Dr.  Joseph  Alden,  who  was 
released  from  the  pastorate  to  connect  himself  with 
Williams  College.  The  pastor  who  was  first  installed 
here  in  the  twentieth  century  was  also  released  to 
engage  in  collegiate  work;  but  the  affection  in  which 
Mr.  Clayton  was  held  in  Williamstown  did  not  cease 
when  he  went  to  the  ends  of  the  states  on  the  Floridian 
peninsula,  and  something  of  the  grip  of  New  England 
must  have  still  held  on  him,  for  it  was  not  long  before 
he  returned  to  continue  in  New  Hampshire  his  work  as 
a  teacher.  Remembered  here  eminently  for  his  work 
for  the  boys,  all  were  glad  when  they  knew  that  he 
was  to  be  at  the  head  of  an  academy  for  the  young. 
Mr.  Clayton  is  the  next  speaker  of  the  evening,  and 
the  last  of  the  former  pastors  who  are  present  with  us. 

The  Rev.  Francis  T.  Clayton: 

Dear  friends :  As  I  come  once  more  to  share  with 
you  the  joy  of  a  special  service,  there  comes  to  me 
a  sense  of  deep  gratitude  similar  to  that  which,  I  fancy, 


Page  thirty- four 


took  possession  of  the  Pilgrims  when  they  were 
welcomed  by  the  Shepherds  who  pastured  their  Flocks 
on  the  Delectable  Mountains.  You  doubtless  recall 
the  passage  so  tenderly  written  by  Bunyan:  "They 
went  then  till  they  came  to  the  Delectable  Mountains; 
*****  Now  there  were  on  the  tops  of  those 
mountains,  Shepherds  feeding  their  Flocks,  and  they 
stood  by  the  Highway  side.  The  Pilgrims  therefore 
went  to  them,  and  leaning  upon  their  staves  (as  is 
common  with  weary  Pilgrims,  when  they  stand  to 
talk  with  any  by  the  way)  they  asked:  Whose 
Delectable  Mountains  are  these?  And  whose  be  the 
Sheep  that  feed  upon  them  ? 
To  which,  the  Shepherds  replied: 

These  mountains  are  Emmanuel's  Land,  and  they 
are  within  sight  of  His  City :  and  the  Sheep  also  are 
His,  and  he  laid  down  His  Life  for  them. 

Then  said  Christian: 

Is  this  the  way  to  the  Celestial  City? 
And  the  Shepherds  answered: 

You  are  just  in  your  way. 

******* 

Then  asked  Christian : 

Is  there  in  this  place  any  Relief,  for  Pilgrims  that 
are  weary,  and  faint  in  the  Way? 
To  which  the  Shepherds  responded : 

The  Lord  of  these  mountains  hath  given  us  a 
charge  not  to  be  forgetful  to  entertain  strangers,  there- 
fore the  good  of  the  place  is  even  before  you. 

I  saw  also  in  my  dream,  That  when  the  Shepherds 
perceived  they  were  wayfaring  men,  they  also  put 
questions  to  them,  *  *  *  *  as,  Whence  came 
you  ?  And  how  got  you  into  the  Way  ?  And  by  what 
means  have  you  so  persevered  therein?  *  *  *  * 


Page  thirty-five 


But  when  the  Shepherds  heard  their  answers,  being 
pleased  therewith,  they  looked  very  lovingly  upon  them, 
and  said,  Welcome  to  the  Delectable  Mountains." 

One  hundred  and  fifty  years  may  be  a  short  or  a 
long  period  according  to  the  point  of  view  one  takes. 
For  the  geologist  it  is  an  insignificant  measure  of  time. 
As  the  life  measure  of  a  human  being,  it  seems  an 
incredible  measure  of  time.  For  the  historian,  much 
depends  upon  the  place  in  the  chronology  of  the  past 
that  a  period  of  such  length  occupies.  One  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  ancient  Egyptian  development  is 
not  so  significant  for  the  historian  of  today  as  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  modern  Europe.  Accord- 
ing to  one's  special  interest  then,  do  we  generally 
consider  the  time  long  or  short.  A  day  may  be  as  a 
thousand  years :  or  a  thousand  years  may  be  as  a  day. 

The  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  whose  span 
measures  the  life-time  of  this  church's  organization, 
records  political,  social,  economic  and  material  changes 
which  no  dreamer  of  dreams  would  have  even  wildly 
guessed  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  Since  this 
church  was  organized,  the  great  eighteenth  century 
revolution  has  had  its  rise  and  has  wrought  political, 
social  and  economic  changes  of  mighty  significance  not 
only  in  Europe  and  in  America,  but  even,  in  a  measure, 
in  remote  Asia.  Continents  once  separated  by  thousands 
of  miles  are  now  nearer  to  each  other  than  were  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  a  few  score  years  ago.  Science 
has  remade  the  earth's  surface.  We  are  today  nearer 
to  the  scenes  of  the  Armenian  atrocities,  than  were  the 
inhabitants  of  New  York  to  Bunker  Hill.  Space  has 
been  in  large  measure  annihilated  and  it  almost  seems 
that  the  day  is  about  to  come  when  time  shall  be  no 
more.  And  this,  yes,  and  much  more  has  been  accom- 
plished in  the  lifetime  of  the  Williamstown  Church. 


Page  thirty-six 


We  no  longer  measure  age  by  time.  In  these  days 
of  incredible  change  we  use  new  measures.  It  may  be 
we  have  not  yet  ascertained  the  actual  age  of  this 
church  which  is  now  celebrating  its  one  hundred  and 
fiftieth  birthday. 

There  is  quite  as  much  philosophy  as  pleasantry  in 
the  remark :  "He  is  eighty  years  young."  The  signs  of 
youth  are  prompt  physical,  intellectual  and  spiritual 
reactions  to  the  ever  changing  outer  world.  Old  age 
has  overtaken  one  when  he  can  make  no  adequate 
response,  either  physically,  intellectually,  or  spiritually 
to  the  stimuli  of  his  environment.  Youth  is  character- 
ized therefore,  by  a  certain  alertness,  a  certain  recep- 
tivity to  influences  in  a  mobile  universe.  One  may  have 
seen  many  years  and  yet  remain  young:  or  he  may 
have  lived  only  a  few  years  and  yet  show  all  the  marks 
of  decrepitude.  Age  is  therefore  fundamentally  a 
matter  of  reactions  and  not  of  years. 

And  then  there  follows  a  corollary,  namely,  the 
thought,  the  literature,  and  the  art  born  of  these 
reactions  are  pervaded  with  the  spirit  of  eternal  youth. 

We  have  received  from  the  past  two  inheritances 
which  fully  illustrate  the  facts  to  which  I  have  just 
alluded,  namely,  that  age  is  a  matter  of  reactions,  and 
that  the  accompanying  products  in  thought,  literature 
and  art,  of  these  reactions  partake  of  the  spirit  of 
youth. 

There  is  first  our  splendid  inheritance  of  Greek 
culture.  No  race  today  is  quite  as  young  as  that  ancient 
people.  The  Greeks  reacted  at  once  to  one  of  the 
fairest  environments  it  has  ever  been  the  lot  of  man- 
kind to  enjoy.  The  very  freshness  of  the  "incense- 
breathing  morn"  pervades  their  daily  life.  They  made 
a  cult  of  physical  perfection  and  their  bodies  became 
beautiful.  They  could  run  with  almost  incredible 


Page  thirty-seven 


fleetness.  They  could  engage  in  every  form  of  athletic 
activity  and  with  grace  and  power  perform  the  feat 
well.  The  composite  impression  of  their  physical  man- 
hood is  that  of  a  youth  with  singular  grace,  ready  to 
respond  to  the  severest  test  that  may  be  placed  upon 
him. 

Greek  literature,  Greek  thought,  and  Greek  art  are 
forever  young.  Youth  today  in  all  lands  is  stirred  by 
the  Homeric  tales,  whether  they  be  the  tales  of  Troy 
or  of  the  return  of  Odysseus.  In  alert  responsiveness 
to  the  wonders  of  the  physical  universe,  our  modern 
philosophers  have  hardly  exceeded  the  philosophers 
of  ancient  Greece.  In  art,  which  in  some  respects 
seems  to  have  been  their  religion,  the  Greeks  are  still 
the  world's  masters.  The  world  will  never  grow  weary 
of  this  splendid  inheritance,  for  it  has  partaken  of 
that  quality  of  eternal  youth.  Whenever  man  makes 
the  most  complete  response  to  his  environment,  either 
physically,  intellectually  or  aesthetically,  he  does  not 
fail  to  recognize  in  this  inheritance  from  ancient 
Greece  ideal  reactions  and  the  quality  of  eternal 
youth. 

Our  second  great  inheritance  is  that  which  has 
come  to  us  from  Palestine.  The  Hebrew  possessed 
the  genius  of  reacting  to  his  spiritual  environment.  A 
wanderer  through  dry  deserts,  a  dweller  in  tents,  the 
shuttle-cock  of  mighty  empires,  he  never  failed  to 
respond  to  the  voice  of  God  in  the  world.  Whether  we 
read  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New,  whether  the  por- 
tions we  read  show  non-Hebraic  elements  of  style  and 
origin  or  not,  one  overwhelming  fact  is  clear,  the  writer 
has  heard  the  voice  of  God  in  his  world  and  he  has  at 
once  replied,  "Lord,  here  am  I."  The  Bible  is  a  very 
ancient  book,  but  it  is  the  first  book  to  which  we  turn 
if  we  seek  accounts  of  first-hand,  spiritual  reactions. 


Page  thirty-eight 


The  remarkable  quality  of  newness  which  characterizes 
the  Bible  can  in  no  small  measure  be  attributed  to  the 
fact  that  from  beginning  to  end  it  is  the  record  of  a 
people  reacting  unfailingly  to  the  realities  of  the 
spiritual  world. 

We  think  of  Jesus  and  his  disciples  as  young  men. 
No  span  of  years,  however  great,  will  ever  efface  that 
impression,  so  long  as  man  reacts  to  the  unseen 
realities  of  the  spiritual  universe.  If  Christianity  as 
expressed  in  the  Master's  life  fails  us  in  these  critical 
days — and  there  are  those  who  rashly  declare  it  has 
already  broken  down — it  will  be  not  because  it  is  old, 
but  rather  because  we  have  failed  to  react  to  those 
fundamental  appeals  of  the  religious  life,  which  consti- 
tute in  fact  the  very  essence  of  Christianity.  Christian- 
ity is  the  name  we  give  primarily,  not  to  intellectual 
reactions  like  the  reactions  of  those  who  phrased  creeds 
and  dogmas,  but  rather  to  those  spiritual  reactions 
which  are  in  even  the  slightest  degree  like  those  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  not  pressing  the  analogy  too  far  to  say  that 
likewise  the  age  of  a  church  is  determined  not  by  the 
number  of  years  it  has  been  in  existence,  but  rather  by 
its  reactions  to  an  ever-changing  world.  And  more 
than  this,  its  reactions  must  show  spiritual  selection. 

There  are  churches  that  are  regular  bee-hives  for 
action  and  reaction.  They  are  always  doing  things. 
Every  plausible  cause  receives  a  response.  But  here 
lies  a  great  danger,  if,  in  this  day  when  so  many 
agencies  are  at  work  for  social  and  material  better- 
ment, the  church  fails  to  respond  to  those  unseen, 
primary  forces  of  the  spiritual  world. 

I  love  that  beautiful  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan. 
It  is  divinely  human!  But  I  am  sure  it  is  not  the 
whole  of  the  Master's  teaching.  It  is  true  that  there 


Page  thirty-nine 


are  times  when  all  the  world  needs  this  message  and 
this  only.  Our  charitable  and  benevolent  societies,  our 
municipal  improvement  leagues  and  reform  organiza- 
tions, social  settlements  and  public  betterment  clubs, 
have  all  learned  this  parable  by  heart.  But  what 
impresses  me  as  an  unheeded  cry  which  Christianity 
alone  can  answer,  is  the  great  cry  that  issues  from  a 
bloods-stained  world. 

"Father,  I  have  sinned  and  done  this  evil  in  thy 
sight!" 

It  is  the  God-dependent  sense  which  the  church 
should  unfailingly  quicken.  If  the  church  fails  to 
react  to  this  reality  of  the  spiritual  life,  no  matter  how 
young  it  may  remain  otherwise,  that  church  has 
grown  old. 

Perhaps  we  are  tempted  to  say,  "This  is  a  very  old 
church,  for  it  is  celebrating  its  one  hundred  and 
fiftieth  birthday."  A  church  may  become  as  old  as 
that.  It  may  react  only  to  a  world  which  does  not  exist 
but  which  was  the  world  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago.  It  may  not  be  able  to  read  the  signs  of  the 
changing  times  and  so  fail  to  see  the  imperative  needs 
of  the  man  of  today.  But,  if  on  the  other  hand,  it  sees 
through  the  clouds,  if  it  keeps  its  eye  on  the  things 
that  are  of  eternal  value,  if  it  reacts  unfailingly  to 
the  life  of  God,  and  helps  us  men  and  women  to  react 
likewise  to  the  unseen  realities  of  the  spiritual  life  in 
God,  then  we  may  say : 

"No,  this  church  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
young." 


Page  forty 


LETTER  OF  THE  REV.  PERCY  MARTIN 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu: 

As  the  evening  has  been  assigned  to  reminiscence, 
will  you  permit  one  more?  In  the  early  spring  of  1909 
there  came  to  me  in  Bridgeport,  Connecticut,  from  a 
friend  who  was  then  the  minister  of  a  church  here  in 
Northern  Berkshire,  the  proposition  that  I  exchange 
pulpits,  houses  and  parish  duties  through  the  following 
summer  with  an  English  clergyman  who  wished  to 
visit  America.  It  was  impossible  for  me  to  fall  in  with 
the  suggestion.  My  friend  then  sought  to  make 
arrangements  elsewhere,  and  they  were  made  with  the 
then  pastor  of  the  Williamstown  church,  who  has  just 
spoken  to  you,  and  the  Rev.  Percy  Martin  was  intro- 
duced to  what  became  afterwards  his  Williamstown 
parish.  I  often  think  of  the  strange  ways  in  which 
our  feet  are  led,  as  I  sit  in  the  house  that  was  the 
home  of  that  minister  of  God's  word  from  across  the 
sea.  He  has  sent  a  letter  to  be  read  at  this  time, 
which  I  will  now  read: 


Letter  of  the  Rev.  Percy  Martin: 

"Most  ministries,  it  may  be  hoped,  involve,  as 
between  pastor  and  people,  a  continual  interchange  of 
help  in  those  things  that  pertain  to  life  eternal.  As  I 
reflect  upon  my  brief  ministry  at  Williamstown,  I  see 
that  an  exception  to  this  rule  has  to  be  recorded. 
Responding  to  a  most  hearty  invitation,  I  came  to  a 
devoted  and  earnest  people,  hungering  for  the  Word 


Page  forty-one 


of  Life,  in  a  condition  of  impaired  health,  and  found 
myself  wholly  incapable  of  realizing  the  ardent  hopes 
that  inspired  me.  I  have  happy  recollections  of  the 
services  I  was  privileged  to  conduct,  both  in  Williams- 
town  and  in  the  schoolhouse  at  Hemlock  Brook. 
Always  I  was  listened  to  with  eager  attention;  and 
that  my  ministry  was  not  fruitless  is  evidenced  by 
the  appreciative  words  and  letters  I  received  and  by 
the  fact  that  a  few  were  led  to  join  themselves  to  our 
Living  Lord  in  the  fellowship  of  His  Church.  These 
things  I  recall  with  joy  and  gratitude. 

But  the  great  feature  of  my  ministry  was  the 
sympathetic  kindness  showered  upon  me  by  all  whom 
I  came  to  know.  If  I  contributed  little  I  received 
much.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  quote  the  Apostle 
Paul  and  say,  as  he  said  to  the  Galatians,  that  I  was 
received  as  an  angel  of  God.  Not  only  is  it  true  that 
no  obstacles  were  thrown  in  my  way;  but  long 
patience  was  shown  in  respect  of  my  manifold  fail- 
ings; and  faults,  which  are  only  too  conspicuous  in 
retrospect,  were  covered  by  that  love  which  thinketh 
no  evil,  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity  but  rejoiceth  in  the 
truth,  which  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things, 
hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things;  which  never 
fails. 

In  the  love  shown  to  my  wife  and  myself 
(especially  in  the  last  sad  days  of  my  stay  at  Williams- 
town)  through  human  kindness  it  was  permitted  to 
us  both  to  acquire  a  new  understanding  of  the  Love 
Eternal." 


Page  forty-two 


ADDRESS  OF 
THE  REV.  CHARLES  S.  STODDARD,  D.  D. 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  Charles  S.  Stoddard,  D.D.: 

The  lateness  of  the  hour  forbids  our  hearing  from 
many,  as  we  would  like  to,  under  the  last  item  of  the 
evening's  program ;  but  we  are  honored  by  the  presence 
of  one  representative  of  our  old  families,  and  a  long- 
time friend  of  many  of  us,  from  whom  we  must  hear. 
Will  Dr.  Stoddard  speak  to  us  ? 

The  Rev.  Charles  S.  Stoddard,  D.  D.: 

I  am  thankful  to  the  pastor  of  this  church,  for 
giving  me  a  chance  to  say  a  word  tonight,  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  my  grandfather,  Daniel  Noble,  was  a 
member,  and  all  of  his  family  were  brought  up  in 
childhood  here.  In  mature  years  all  but  one  (a  faith- 
ful daughter  who  stood  by  her  venerable  mother  till 
she  died  and  was  buried  in  Cemetery  Hill)  drifted  away 
to  distant  parts  of  the  United  States  and  even  to 
Scotland. 

My  great,  great  grandfather  was  also  a  member 
and  officer  of  this  church. 

As  a  boy  I  spent  many  summers  in  Williamstown, 
in  the  ancestral  home,  when  my  mother  came  from 
Boston  for  an  annual  visit.  So  I  became  familiar 
with  the  old  church  upon  the  hill  and  its  ministers 
while  yet  I  was  a  boy.  My  mother  had  been  converted 
under  Dr.  Gridley's  preaching,  and  she  taught  me  the 


Page  forty-three 


same  kind  of  religion.  I  used  to  go  to  the  prayer 
meetings  at  Mrs.  Benjamin's  house  on  Saturday 
evenings  at  "early  candle-light,"  and  to  Albert  Hop- 
kins's  house  at  other  times.  I  sat  in  the  pew  with  my 
grandmother  during  my  college  course,  which  probably 
saved  me  from  much  temptation  and  gave  me  a  chance 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  pretty  girls  of  the 
congregation,  whom  the  other  students,  who  sat  in  the 
galleries,  could  only  contemplate  at  long  range. 

I  recall  the  Rev.  Mr.  Savage;  Dr.  Absalom  Peters, 
who  always  ended  the  long  prayer,  "Let  thy  banner 
over  us  be  love,"  to  which  we  all  responded  "Amen;" 
Dr.  Addison  Ballard,  a  finished  scholar  and  an 
eloquent  preacher,  and  others.  The  college  by  agree- 
ment supplied  the  preaching  for  a  portion  of  the  year, 
and  we  students  were  all  glad  when  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins 
and  "Dr.  Joe"  Alden,  and  "Prof.  Al."  Hopkins 
preached. 

To  the  old  white  meeting  house  at  the  head  of  the 
street,  the  students  marched  to  Junior  and  Moonlight 
and  Adelphic  Union  exercises,  and  there  I  heard  Rufus 
Choate  and  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  who  afterwards  became 
Secretary  of  War  under  Lincoln,  and  other  great 
orators.  There  I  won  some  prizes  and  received  my 
degree  in  1854;  and  one  of  the  first  sermons  that  I 
ever  preached  was  on  a  summer  Sunday  in  place  of 
President  Hopkins,  at  his  request.  I  wonder  at  my 
daring;  but  "youth  climbs  the  ladder  leaning  'gainst 
the  cloud."  I  have  known  all  the  pastors  since  my 
college  days,  and  preached  for  all  of  them.  Looking 
back  over  nearly  eighty  years  I  am  thankful  to  this 
church  for  many  good  influences  and  gifts  to  my 
ancestors  and  myself,  and  am  happy  to  have  been  able 
to  join  with  so  many  friends  and  Christian  people  in 
celebrating  this  memorial. 


Page  forty- four 


LETTER  OF  THE  REV.  HENRY  R.  HOISINGTON 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu: 

From  1853  to  1856,  our  church  was  served 
faithfully  and  efficiently  by  the  Rev.  Henry  R. 
Hoisington,  whose  earlier  years  had  been  given  to 
missionary  work  in  the  foreign  field.  A  letter  has 
come  from  his  son  which  will  be  of  highest  interest  to 
the  older  members  of  the  church : 

Letter  of  the  Rev.  Henry  R.  Hoisington: 

MOORES,  PA.,  October  4,  1915. 

Rev.  John  DePeu: 

Dear  Brother:  Having  received  an  invitation  to 
be  present  at  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  the  First  Congregational  Church  of  Williamstown, 
Massachusetts,  I  send  to  you  my  regrets  that  I  may 
not  be  present  on  that  occasion.  I  am,  this  day, 
seventy-nine  years  old,  and,  while  hale  and  hearty,  the 
trip  to  Williamstown  is  somewhat  long,  *  *  *  * 
and  there  are  but  few  likely  to  be  present  who  would 
remember  me. 

Could  I  be  with  you  I  would  feel  myself  encom- 
passed by  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses,  who  would  be 
present  from  the  cemeteries  there  and  elsewhere, 
into  whose  midst  I  was  introduced  in  1842  a  waif 
from  Ceylon,  India.  How  my  memory  recalls  them: 
the  Whitmans,  who  received  me  into  their  home  as 
one  of  their  own;  the  Lasells,  Hopkinses,  Sabins, 
Deweys,  Benjamins,  Perrys,  Tatlocks,  Mathers, 
Smedleys,  Sanderses,  Browns,  Temples,  Footes, 
Curtises,  Horsfords,  Cooks,  Nobles,  Bridges,  Noah 
Porter  in  his  drab  suit  and  powerful  in  prayer,  the 


Page  forty-five 


Lathams,  Bardwells,  Stones,  Shattucks,  Coles  and 
Pennimans.  Other  names  too  would  doubtless  flash 
out  brightly  could  I  walk  over  those  old  hills. 

How  the  old  white  church  on  the  hill  with 
family  pews  below  and  galleries  above  and  its  tall 
spire  from  which  went  forth  the  bell  calls  to  Sabbath 
services,  to  fires,  and  when  agile  collegians  found 
means  to  pull  its  rope,  stands  out  before  me !  The 
tall  pulpit  with  double  flight  of  stairs,  occupied  for 
many  years  by  Dr.  Absalom  Peters  with  his  fine 
writing,  and  afterwards  by  my  father  for  a  short  time, 
and  then  by  Dr.  Addison  Ballard,  while  at  times  we 
heard  President  Mark  Hopkins,  and  his  brother 
Albert,  and  by  exchanges  the  ministers  of  Adams, 
Dr.  Dana  and  Dr.  Crawford, — this  picture  is  before 
me.  Also  the  Sabbath  School,  between  the  two  day 
services,  having  printed  books  with  questions  and 
answers  for  munitions.  Ah!  some  of  those  teaching 
there  from  college  as  well  as  town  went  forth  to  teach 
the  far  off  heathen  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 
I  had  as  teacher  a  Mr.  Brewster,  who  went  to  China, 
and  soon  died  there.  We  also  recall  a  Mr.  Ford, 
who  took  with  him  to  Syria  Miss  Mary  Perry  of  the 
church.  Then  we  forget  not  the  Sanderses,  father 
and  sons,  children  of  the  church  and  town,  who  were 
also  missionaries. 

I  recall  also  the  Saturday  evening  prayer  circle 
in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Benjamin,  and  that  on  Tuesday 
evenings  at  Mr.  Seymour  Whitman's,  and  the  Sunday 
evening  meeting  in  Latham's  Hall  above  the  store. 

I  can  almost  hear  the  jingle  of  sleigh  bells  and 
the  voice  of  Deacon  Caleb  Brown  calling  out  as  he 
drew  near  with  his  box  sled  one  door  and  another: 
"Pile  in  boys  and  galls,  we  are  going  to  have  a  rousing 
meeting  in  the  old  stone  school  house  at  White  Oaks." 

Another  picture  stands  out  before  me  as  repre- 
sentative of  a  feature  of  the  activities  of  the  old 
church.  The  scene  is  in  the  home  of  Mr.  Bridges. 
The  circle  of  mothers  there  are  gathered  for  their 
monthly  meeting  for  prayer.  There  I  am  sitting  and 


Page  forty-six 


a  child  from  another  family,  on  stools  in  the  center 
of  the  group,  to  be  prayed  for !  And  those  sweet 
earnest  prayers  gained  their  answer  for  many  a  child. 

I  can  remember  that,  once  at  least,  the  church 
engaged  Dr.  Lowell  Mason  to  give  there  a  course  of 
instruction  in  congregational  singing,  and  the  people 
were  there. 

I  also  recall  a  season  of  grace  when  the  church 
was  filled  with  earnest  souls :  then  proud  hearts  were 
so  touched  by  the  Holy  Spirit  that,  men  and  women, 
they  knelt  in  the  aisles  asking  the  prayers  of  God's 
people. 

It  was  in  that  church  that  I  took  my  vows  to  be 
the  Lord's  servant.  It  was  from  its  membership  that 
I  received  such  gracious  helps  and  loving  advice,  as 
well  as  witnessed  such  true  Christian  devotion  that  I 
have  been  helped  along  the  way  of  a  Christian  life; 
and  remember  that  I  am  but  one  of  a  host  of  others 
that  were  so  touched  and  aided. 

So  my  prayer  is  that  that  dear  old  church  may 
hold  fast  to  the  tested  traditions  of  the  past  and  be 
ever  ready  to  hear  Him  who  walketh  in  the  midst  of 
His  Golden  Candlesticks,  as  He  says,  "Hold  that  fast 
which  thou  hast  that  no  man  take  thy  Crown." 


My  heart  is  stirred  at  the  thought  of  this 
anniversary  and  *  *  *  *  I  shall  remember  you 
all  who  engage  in  its  exercises. 

Yours  fraternally, 

H.  R.  HOISINGTON. 


Page  forty-seven 


HISTORICAL  REVIEW,  1765-1915 


The  Reverend  John  DePeu: 

Proverbs  8:2 — On  the  top  of  high  places  by  the  way, 
where  the  paths  meet,  she  standeth. 

That  is  the  place  for  wisdom  and  understanding,  on 
the  top  of  high  places  where  that  which  is  afar  off  can 
be  seen  as  well  as  that  which  is  near;  at  the  crossing 
of  the  roads  where  various  and  conflicting  currents 
meet  and  commingle,  the  place  from  which  diverging 
influences  proceed.  At  such  a  point,  wisdom  is 
increased  by  large  inclusions.  From  such  a  vantage 
ground,  her  influence  spreads  most  easily  and  widely. 
She  holds  a  strategic  point  like  railroad  centers  on 
modern  war-maps. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  north- 
western Massachusetts  was  one  of  these  strategic 
points  where  alien  and  antagonistic  forces  came  face 
to  face.  Back  and  forth  through  uncounted  years 
hostile  tribes  from  what  we  now  call  New  York  and 
New  England  had  threaded  these  valleys  and  crossed 
these  hills  seeking  each  other  in  warfare.  Here  the 
red  man  and  the  white  tracked  and  slew  each  other. 
Here  France  and  England  fought  out  a  side  issue  of 
the  conflict  that  was  devastating  Europe,  as  today  in 
South  Africa  English  and  German  forces  are  engaged. 
The  beginnings  of  history  here  were  baptized  in  blood. 
However  much  we  may  preach  peace,  we  owe  our 
heritage  to  warriors. 


Page  forty-eight 


THE  REVEREND  JOHN  DE?EU 


The  Deerfield  massacre  of  February,  1704,  taught 
the  settlers  in  the  Connecticut  valley  the  wisdom  of 
advancing  their  defences  from  their  doorsills  to  their 
outer  gates.  A  line  of  forts  was  pushed  forward  to 
the  north  over  the  New  Hampshire  line,  and  through 
Shirley  and  Colerain  to  the  extreme  frontier  west  of 
the  Hoosacs. 

This  far  corner  of  the  territory  that  the  Colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  claimed  as  its  own  in  what  the 
Indians  called  Hoosac,  "The  Land  Beyond,"  was  first 
officially  surveyed  and  two  townships  laid  out  in  1739. 
The  Colony  of  New  York  contested  the  claims  of  the 
eastern  Colony,  and  the  activities  of  the  surveyors  were 
opposed,  as  the  surveyors  reported,  "by  sundry  gentle- 
men from  Albany."  In  later  years,  other  gentlemen 
from  that  neighborhood  have  made  ample  amends  for 
this  opposition,  and  we  owe  to  one  of  them  this  beauti- 
ful House  of  God  in  which  we  are  today  worshipping. 
A  second  survey,  in  1749,  superseded  the  first  and 
determined  the  lines  of  the  townships  as  they  have 
continued  until  the  present  except  for  the  western 
boundary,  concerning  which  Massachusetts  and  New 
York  came  to  final  agreement  in  1787. 

These  were  first  known  as  East  and  West  Hoosac, 
or  simply  as  the  East  and  West  Townships,  the  eastern 
being  later  renamed  and  still  later  divided  into  Adams 
and  North  Adams,  the  western  being  also  renamed  but 
remaining  entire.  The  committee  in  charge  of  the 
survey  reported  to  the  General  Court  that  it  did  "deem 
the  west  township  the  most  valuable,"  the  value  of  land 
in  those  days  being  determined  chiefly  by  its  fitness  for 
agriculture. 

During  the  interval  between  the  two  surveys,  Fort 
Massachusetts  was  built  in  1745,  destroyed  by  the 
French  and  Indians,  who  took  its  garrison  as  captives 


Page  forty  nine 


to  Canada  in  1746,  and  rebuilt  in  1747.  Soldiers  from 
the  fort,  passing  back  and  forth  on  scout  service  over 
the  western  township,  saw  the  land  that  it  was  good 
and  desirable  and  sought  to  acquire  title  to  some 
portions  of  it.  In  the  spring  of  1750,  "the  Needle  of 
the  surveying  instrument"  was  again  brought  into  use 
under  the  direction  of  a  third  committee  of  the  General 
Court.  A  street,  fifteen  rods  wide  and  one  mile  and 
three-eighths  long,  was  laid  out  as  public  land,  crossing 
the  four  hills  from  Green  River  to  Buxton  Brook. 
The  land  on  both  sides  of  this  street  was  laid  off  in 
sixty-three  ten  to  twelve  acre  lots,  sixty-two  of  these 
having  a  frontage  on  the  street  of  thirteen  and  one- 
third  rods  and  a  depth  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
rods,  the  other  lot  being  set  lengthwise  between  the 
east  end  of  the  street  and  the  river,  the  ownership 
of  each  of  these  lots  to  carry  with  it  the  right  to 
one  sixty-third  of  the  township  remaining  outside  of 
the  house  lots,  such  remainder  to  be  equitably  divided 
by  and  among  the  proprietors.  One  of  these  lots,  the 
one  on  the  corner  of  Main  and  North  Streets,  where 
the  Greylock  now  stands,  was  set  apart  with  its  rights 
to  be  given  to  the  first  minister.  The  lot  next  east 
with  its  rights  was  set  apart  as  an  endowment  for  the 
ministry.  Later  demands  for  an  accounting  of  this 
endowment  seem  to  have  caused  some  strong  feeling, 
and,  unfortunately,  the  endowment  was  not  maintained. 
The  lot  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Main  and  North 
streets  was  set  apart  with  its  rights  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  schools.  The  committee  was  authorized  to 
convey  title  to  the  remaining  lots  on  condition:  "That 
each  settler  pay  the  Committee  on  his  being  admitted 
£6.  135.  6d.  lawful  money,  for  the  use  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  that  he  shall  within  the  space  of  two  years 
from  the  time  of  his  being  admitted  build  a  house 


Page  fifty 


eighteen  feet  long,  fifteen  feet  wide,  and  seven  stud 
(some  of  which  "regulation  houses"  are  still  standing 
and  in  use)  and  shall  fence  five  acres  of  his  said  house 
lot  and  shall  bring  the  same  to  English  grass,  or  fit  it 
for  ploughing  and  raising  of  wheat  or  other  corn,  and 
shall  by  themselves  or  assigns  remain  on  said  house 
lot  five  years  in  seven  from  the  time  of  their  being 
admitted,  and  that  they  do  settle  a  learned  orthodox 
minister  within  the  term  of  five  years  from  the  time 
of  their  being  admitted." 

These  rights  were  first  taken  up  by  men  to  whom 
they  appealed  as  a  business  adventure  promising  profit, 
being  advertised  for  sale  in  Boston  and  elsewhere. 
Field's  History  of  Berkshire,  published  in  1829,  speak- 
ing of  the  original  proprietors,  says:  "Only  a  few  of 
them  seem  ever  to  have  been  actual  settlers;  and  of 
these,  no  descendants  retaining  the  family  name,  and 
a  very  small  number  of  others,  are  now  inhabitants 
of  the  place."  The  rights  were  early  and  repeatedly 
bought  and  sold,  and  soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  men 
who  made  their  homes  on  house  lots  along  the  Main 
street  and  on  the  various  allotments  north  and  south. 
The  earliest  actual  settlers  were  men  who  had  served 
in  the  garrison  at  Fort  Massachusetts  and  old  neigh- 
bors of  theirs  from  the  eastern  settlements  in  Massa- 
chusetts, or  from  the  middle  and  western  parts  of 
Connecticut.  The  names  of  some  of  these  are  still 
found  adorning  the  church  rolls,  and  more  of  their 
blood,  but  with  other  names,  are  with  us  today  carry- 
ing forward  the  best  spirit  and  traditions  of  their 
ancestors. 

With  this  settling  of  West  Hoosac  another  meeting 
of  paths  came  to  view.  Fort  Massachusetts,  as  rebuilt, 
barred  the  Indians  from  invading  the  settlements  by 
way  of  the  old  Mohawk  Trail ;  but  they  knew  the  ways 


Page  fifty-one 


of  the  valleys.  They  had  but  to  keep  to  the  south 
instead  of  turning  eastward  when  they  came  to  the 
Greylock  group,  and  by  that  way  fall  upon  the  settlers 
in  the  valley  of  the  Housatonic,  as  they  did  in  1754, 
committing  their  ravages  even  as  far  as  Stockbridge. 
That  raid  had  important  influence  on  the  future  of  the 
West  Township.  It  supported  the  claim  of  the  few 
settlers  here  to  have  larger  aid  from  the  colony  in 
defense  of  the  strategic  point.  Another  effect  was  of 
more  importance.  This  raid  opened  the  eyes  of  men 
in  Connecticut  to  the  fact  that  West  Hoosac  was  the 
gateway  to  the  valley  of  the  Housatonic  as  it  was  the 
gateway  to  the  upper  valley  of  the  Connecticut,  and 
so  stimulated  the  interest,  particularly  of  Litchfield 
County  men,  in  the  new  settlement  concerning  which 
they  had  already  heard  from  those  of  their  own 
neighbors  who  had  served  at  Fort  Massachusetts.  As 
the  early  years  sped  by,  Connecticut  men  with  their 
families  settled  in  the  new  township  in  larger  numbers 
than  came  from  the  older  colony.  In  the  early  affairs 
of  the  town,  these  men  from  Connecticut  exercised  a 
preponderating  influence,  and  gave  to  the  town  a 
distinctive  character  that  it  has  never  lost.  A  discerning 
eye  can  still  trace  the  old  influences,  as  you  can  still 
trace  over  the  hill  the  old  section  of  North  Street  that 
was  abandoned  and  given  over  to  grass  eighty 
years  ago. 

If  time  permitted,  a  long  and  interesting  chapter 
might  be  written  concerning  the  meeting  of  those 
conflicting  currents  from  the  two  colonies.  It  is  a  safe 
guess  that  this  conflict  had  something  to  do  with  the 
long  delay  in  securing  the  settling  of  "a  learned  and 
orthodox  minister"  in  the  town.  Unhappily,  we  are 
obliged  to  move  through  the  years  in  this  review,  as 
many  of  our  present  day  motorists  pass  through  places 


Page  fifty-two 


full  of  interest  and  charm,  at  such  a  speed  that  even  the 
signboards  at  the  crossroads  can  scarcely  be  read.  We 
can  only  note  that  some  of  the  first  settlers  here  brought 
with  them  from  the  middle  and  eastern  part  of  Massa- 
chusetts traditions  and  theories  from  which  the  early 
settlers  of  Connecticut  separated  themselves,  and  from 
Connecticut  came  other  men  with  their  distinctive 
traditions  and  theories  to  outvote  the  Massachusetts 
men  in  town  and  church  affairs.  The  strife  was  old 
between  aristocratic  and  democratic  principles,  and 
more  recent  between  Old  Lights  and  New  Lights.  The 
Williamses,  and  other  kindred  of  Col.  Ephraim,  who 
got  his  name  perpetuated  here,  drove  Jonathan 
Edwards  from  Northampton  and  sought  to  drive  him 
from  Stockbridge.  But  Hopkins,  of  Sheffield,  and 
Bellamy,  of  Bethlehem,  Connecticut,  carried  forward 
Edwards's  teachings,  and  from  the  Edwardeans  the 
early  ministers  here  got  their  training  for  the  ministry. 
The  first  pages  of  Seth  Swift's  records  show  that  in- 
fluence. The  broad  and  easy  way  into  the  church  which 
Edwards's  grandfather,  the  Rev.  Solomon  Stoddard, 
his  predecessor  in  the  Northampton  pastorate,  held 
open  for  all  whose  lives  were  not  patently  profligate 
was  not  open  here,  for  on  February  19,  1779,  the 
church  met  and  "Voted:  that  no  person  be  admitted 
a  member  of  this  church  but  such  as  appear  to  a 
Judgement  charity  to  be  true  Christian  and  a  real 
friend  of  Christ.  Voted :  that  a  letter  of  recommenda- 
tion is  not  sufficient  grounds  upon  which  to  receive 
persons  from  other  churches  into  church  relation  and, 
therefore,that  the  same  methods  for  acquaintance  with 
their  beliefs  and  knowledge  doctrinal  and  experimental 
ought  to  be  taken  by  the  Brethren  and  members  of  the 
church  with  them  as  others  who  are  received  into 
church  relation."  When  this  action  was  taken,  the 


Page  fifty- three 


church  was  without  a  minister,  so  that  the  action  clearly 
shows  the  judgment  of  the  members  on  a  subject  that 
was  widely,  and  often  rancorously,  debated  at  that  time. 

We  have  noted  that  the  fifth  of  the  conditions  on 
which  the  original  land  titles  were  granted  was  that 
the  proprietors  should  "settle  a  learned  Orthodox 
minister  in  said  town  within  the  term  of  five  years  from 
the  time  of  their  being  admitted."  That  condition, 
as  you  can  see,  was  loosely  drawn.  "Five  years  from 
the  time  of  their  being  admitted,"  it  says;  but  just 
when  would  the  five  years  begin  to  run?  Would  it  be 
five  years  from  the  admission  of  the  first  settlers?  or 
five  years  from'  the  taking  up  of  the  sixty-third  right  ? 
Evidently  the  point  was  not  pressed,  nor  even  the 
more  lenient  requirement  enforced.  The  settlers  were 
not  in  a  hurry  in  the  matter,  and  no  one  drove  them. 

It  is  a  common  habit  to  exalt  the  piety  of  the 
Fathers,  and  we  are  often  told  that  their  first  concern 
was  to  establish  a  church  and  a  school  wherever 
they  settled.  Unfortunately,  there  is  indisputable 
evidence  that  this  was  not  a  universal  rule,  and  it 
certainly  did  not  hold  in  West  Hoosac.  There  was  no 
early  demand,  probably  no  early  need,  for  a  school, 
and  no  mention  of  school  or  schoolhouse  is  found  in 
the  records  until  1763.  The  first  necessity  and  the 
first  concern  of  the  settlers  was  for  the  clearing  of  the 
streets  first  laid  out,  the  division  of  outlying  lands  and 
the  laying  and  making  of  roads  to  "convene"  these  out 
lots.  Until  1759  the  minds  of  the  settlers  were  much 
occupied  with  the  danger  that  threatened  them  from 
the  Indians  and  French,  and  the  records  show  that 
they  were  more  concerned  with  fort  and  stockade, 
swivel  guns  and  ammunition,  the  supply  of  pork  and 
rum,  than  they  were  with  getting  a  minister  and  having 
the  gospel  preached. 


Page  fifty-four 


In  May,  1757,  in  a  letter  to  His  Majesty's  Council 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  Seth  Hudson,  the  commanding 
officer  of  West  Hoosac,  having  prayed  for  artillery 
and  ammunition  for  the  block-house,  added :  "And  if 
a  Chaplain  shall  be  appointed  this  summer  for  Fort 
Massachusetts,  we  beg  we  may  likewise  have  the 
privilege  of  his  preaching  with  us,  a  favour  we  have 
not  hitherto  enjoyed  though  but  four  miles  distant  from 
Fort  Massachusetts."  That  was  seven  years  after  the 
beginning  of  permanent  settlement  of  the  township, 
and  no  steps  had  been  taken  up  to  this  time  toward 
securing  the  settlement  of  a  minister.  Apparently  the 
obligation  laid  upon  the  settlers  in  the  matter  had 
fallen  from  their  memory,  as  Hudson's  letter  has  a 
tone  of  complaint  as  though  the  province  were 
responsible  for  the  religious  well-being,  as  well  as  the 
physical  security,  of  the  settlers  who  were  "living  in  a 
huddle,"  as  they  complained,  upon  their  hilltops. 

On  October  i,  1760,  the  proprietors  seem  to  have 
recalled  their  obligations,  but  still  allowed  themselves 
abundant  deliberation,  as  they  "Voted  to  hire  preaching 
for  Six  months  Beginning  at  the  first  of  May  next." 
That  put  the  matter  off  for  seven  months  more;  but 
there  must  have  been  some  who  demanded  more  of 
haste.  At  a  meeting  of  the  proprietors  on  November 
20,  1760,  Gideon  Warren  and  Thomas  Train  were 
chosen  "to  Hier  a  Good  orthodox  Preacher  for  s'd 
Propriete."  These  were  Massachusetts  men  from 
Brimfield  and  Watertown.  These  two  went  on  the 
quest,  but  without  result.  At  the  meeting  of  September 
24,  1761,  their  bills  were  allowed  for  £2.  55.  and  for 
I2s.  "for  Going  after  a  minister."  Massachusetts 
men  having  failed,  Connecticut  men  had  the  next 
chance:  Josiah  Horsford  and  Samuel  Kellogg  were 
appointed  "to  Hier  a  good  orthodox  Preacher."  This 


Page  fifty-five 


committee  was  no  more  successful  than  the  other.  Both 
elements  in  the  community  having  been  allowed  to 
make  the  attempt  and  having  failed  to  secure  a  good 
orthodox  preacher  and  minister  for  the  town,  interest 
in  the  subject  flagged,  or  else  too  much  friction  had 
developed,  and  in  the  records  of  the  meeting  of  March 
n,  1762,  we  read:  "3.  article  of  raising  money  to  hire 
preaching  tryed  voted  in  ye  Negative."  This  you  note 
is  twelve  years  after  the  first  settling  of  the  town. 
There  had  been  serious  distractions  through  part  of 
this  time  on  account  of  war  and  rumors  of  war.  The 
settlers  were  still  too  busy  providing  for  defense, 
clearing  their  lots,  dividing  the  land  and  making  roads, 
to  give  much  attention  to  things  of  the  spirit. 

A  century  and  a  quarter  before  this  there  had  been 
towns  settled  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  like 
Springfield,  Windsor  and  Hartford,  on  a  distinctly 
religious  foundation ;  in  some  cases  a  church  migrating 
with  its  full  organization  intact  and  carrying  with  it 
its  own  minister;  but  times  had  changed.  In  the 
second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  settlers  of 
West  Hoosac  were  not  sinners  above  all  others.  In 
1774,  the  General  Association  of  the  Colony  of 
Connecticut,  "taking  into  consideration  the  State  of  ye 
Settlements  now  forming  in  the  Wilderness  to  the 
Westward  and  North-westward  of  us,  who  are  mostly 
destitute  of  a  preached  Gospel,  many  of  which  are  of 
our  Brethren  Emigrants  from  this  Colony,  think  it 
advisable  that  an  attempt  should  be  made  to  send 
missionaries  among  them,"  and  took  measure  "for 
obtaining  support  of  such  Missionaries."  The  subject 
recurs  from  year  to  year  in  the  records  of  the 
Association.  Various  Connecticut  pastors  from  time 
to  time  obtained  leave  of  absence  from  their  charges 
to  spend  some  months  in  missionary  work  in  these 


Page  fifty-six 


destitute  settlements  in  Vermont  and  New  York.  The 
reports  made  by  these  and  later  missionaries  in  the 
same  or  similar  fields  give  a  vivid  picture  of  such 
conditions  as  existed  here  during  the  years  we  are 
now  reviewing.  The  records  of  the  meeting  of  the 
Association  in  June,  1791,  are  of  special  interest  to  us. 
At  that  meeting  it  was  "Voted  that  it  is  hereby 
recommended  to  the  several  Associations  to  express 
their  views  concerning  the  most  proper  and  feasible 
mode  of  sending  missionaries  to  the  new  settlements, 
and  to  communicate  them  to  the  next  General 
Association;"  and  at  that  same  meeting,  among  those 
returned  to  the  Association  as  candidates  for  the 
ministry,  the  first  one  named  in  the  list  is  Ebenezer 
Fitch,  who  was  already  engaged  as  Principal  of  the 
Free  School  in  Williamstown  and  began  his  service 
here  in  the  following  October.  But  that  is  thirty  years 
ahead  of  our  story  which  we  left  with  the  meeting  of 
March,  1762. 

One  wonders  how  much  longer  the  settlers  in  the 
new  township  might  have  gone  without  a  minister  and 
a  church,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  final  condition  of 
their  title  to  their  lands  and  the  provision  that  non- 
fulfillment of  the  various  conditions  would  forfeit  their 
titles.  That  must  occasionally  have  come  to  mind. 
By  1762-3  there  was  more  of  an  effort  made  in  this 
line.  It  was  definitely  "voted  to  have  preaching  for 
the  future."  Various  committees  were  appointed,  and 
bills  paid  for  "going  after  a  minister."  A  call  "to 
preach  on  probation"  was  given  to  a  Mr.  Warner,  who 
either  declined  it  or  was  not  approved,  and  a  proposal 
to  call  a  Mr.  Strickland  "on  probation"  was  voted 
down.  They  worked  at  the  problem  for  two  more 
years.  On  March  6,  1765,  they  "votted  there  be  Nine 
Shillings  of  money  Raised  on  Eaich  Proprietor's  Right 


Page  fifty-seven 


to  Sopor t  the  Gospel,"  and  at  last,  on  July  26,  1765, 
"Voted  and  a  Greed  to  Give  mr.  Whitman  Welch  a 
Call  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  in  this  town,  Voted 
to  Give  mr.  Welch  Eighty  Pound  Settlement  Lawfull 
money  one  Half  to  be  paid  the  first  year  and  the  other 
Half  to  be  Paid  Second  year.  Voted  to  Give  mr. 
Welch  for  his  Sallary  Seventy  Pounds  a  year  forty 
Pounds  the  first  year  and  forty  Pounds  the  Second 
year  then  to  rise  three  pounds  yearly  till  it  comes  to 
Seventy  Pounds  and  the  use  of  the  ministry  House  Lot 
Exclusive  of  the  Remainder  of  the  wright,  Voted  and 
chose  Samuel  Kellogg  Benjamin  Simonds  James 
Meacham  Commetree  men  to  treate  with  mr.  Welch 
Concerning  His  Settleing  in  this  Town."  October  22, 
1765,  the  proprietors  "Votted  and  chose  Richard 
Stratton  Josiah  Horsford  and  William  Horsford  a 
Commetree  to  Provide  for  the  ordination,"  and  on 
July  14,  1766,  payment  was  authorized  for  "Expence 
of  the  ordination  Vittels  and  Horse  Keeping"  and 
otherwise  "Providing  for  the  ordination."  Beyond 
what  was  provided  by  these  votes,  Mr.  Welch,  as  the 
first  settled  minister  of  the  town,  received  the 
"Minister's  lot"  with  its  right  to  one  sixty-third  of 
the  land  in  the  township.  Mr.  Welch  was  probably 
ordained  as  pastor  of  the  church  in  November,  1765, 
and  so,  at  last,  West  Hoosac,  or  "West  Hoosuck"  as 
it  was  commonly  called,  secured  its  good,  learned, 
orthodox  preacher  and  minister  of  the  gospel  in  the 
same  year  in  which  it  changed  its  name  and  entered  on 
its  career  as  Williamstown. 

Mr.  Welch  was  born  in  Milford,  Connecticut. 
Owing  to  the  early  death  of  his  father,  he  was  brought 
up  in  the  home  of  an  uncle  in  New  Milford,  Connecti- 
cut, where  he  also  found  his  wife,  Marvin  Gaylord, 
the  daughter  of  a  deacon  in  the  New  Milford  church. 


Page  fifty-eight 


She  was  a  woman  greatly  beloved  in  this  town  and  in 
her  early  home  to  which  she  returned  after  her 
husband's  death.  Deacon's  daughters  make  the  best 
ministers'  wives,  if  the  judgment  of  two  pastors  of 
one  church  may  be  trusted.  Each  year  the  air  of  our 
hillsides  is  made  more  fragrant  by  roses  sprung  from 
the  old  stock  that  Marvin  Gaylord  Welch  brought 
hither  and  planted  in  her  dooryard.  So  long  may  the 
gracious  influence  of  a  sweet  and  modest  woman 
continue  through  the  changing  years. 

Prof.  Ebenezer  Kellogg,  writing  in  1829  when  men 
were  still  living  who  had  themselves  seen  and  listened 
to  Mr.  Welch,  describes  him,  in  Field's  History  of 
Berkshire  County,  as  "a  man  of  intelligence  and 
activity,  attentive  to  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  serious 
and  earnest  in  the  performance  of  them.  *  *  *  * 
He  always  wrote  his  sermons,  and  delivered  them  with 
animation  and  propriety  of  manner.  He  was  social  in 
habits,  fond  of  conversation,  in  which  he  was  often 
sportive  and  shrewd,  and  sometimes,  perhaps,  too 
gay  and  jocose.  In  person  he  was  rather  short  and 
light.  He  was  fond  of  athletic  exercises  and  excelled 
in  them  whenever  the  manners  of  the  day  allowed  him 
to  join  in  them."  The  description  calls  before  the  mind 
a  man  sure  to  win  the  respect  and  affection  of  the 
sturdy  pioneers  who  seek  out  and  settle  new  lands. 

There  was  fighting  blood  in  Whitman  Welch  and 
he  joined  the  Colonial  forces  under  Gen.  Benedict 
Arnold  in  the  winter  of  1775-1776  and  was  with  them 
through  their  terrible  experiences  in  the  Maine  wilder- 
ness and  under  the  walls  of  Quebec.  The  patriots  of 
'75  and  '76  felt  that  in  the  fight  for  their  liberties  they 
were  engaged  in  a  holy  war.  In  Williamstown  not  a 
single  Tory  was  to  be  found,  and  the  church  accepted 
as  right  and  proper  the  decision  of  its  pastor  to  go 


Page  fifty-nine 


with  the  troops.  Other  churches  in  New  England  made 
similar  surrenders.  The  church  in  Norfolk,  Connecti- 
cut, gave  up  for  a  time  its  first  pastor,  the  Rev.  Ammi 
Ruhama  Robbins,  who  was  one  of  the  first  trustees 
of  Williams  College,  that  he  might  accompany  the 
army  that  moved  against  Canada  by  way  of  Lake 
Champlain.  Both  the  eastern  and  the  western  armies 
were  ravaged  by  smallpox.  Parson  Robbins  was 
invalided  home;  but  Parson  Welch  died  of  smallpox 
under  the  walls  of  Quebec  in  March,  1776.  The 
coincidence  has  more  intense  interest  for  one  who  has 
served  both  of  the  churches  in  which  these  two  held 
their  first  and  only  pastorates.  Not  "peace  at  any 
price"  men,  not  inclined  to  neutrality  when  great  issues 
were  at  stake,  willing  to  fight  for  their  faith,  ready  to 
cast  in  all  their  fortune,  even  life  itself,  for  the  cause 
in  which  they  believed,  and  to  shepherd  the  men 
entrusted  to  them  even  through  all  hardship  and  peril, 
these  were  the  men  to  be  preachers  in  the  wilderness 
and  first  pastors  of  frontier  churches.  They  molded 
and  quickened  the  young  communities  to  noble  life. 

The  church  in  Williamstown  was  probably  organ- 
ized the  same  day  on  which  Mr.  Welch  was  ordained, 
all  earlier  action  concerning  securing  of  preaching  and 
a  minister  having  been  taken  by  the  proprietors.  The 
number  of  charter  members  must  have  been  small. 
Three  years  later,  there  appear  to  have  been  only 
twenty  male  church  members  in  the  town.  We  have 
no  list  of  these  charter  members,  nor  any  records  of  the 
church  previous  to  1779,  up  to  which  time  sixty-one 
had  been  enrolled. 

Having  secured  their  minister,  the  next  necessity 
was  to  provide  a  proper  place  in  which  he  might 
preach.  Thus  far  such  religious  services  as  the  com- 
munity had  were  held  in  private  houses,  in  Benjamin 


Page  sixty 


Simonds's  tavern,  or  in  the  log  school  house  which  had 
been  built  on  the  minister's  lot.  Now  there  was  a 
demand  for  a  meeting-house.  And  here  we  come  to 
another  crossing  of  paths  on  the  high  places. 

From  1750  to  1765  the  township  was  held  as  a 
"Propriety"  the  sixty  proprietors  controlling  all  public 
affairs.  In  1765  the  General  Court  incorporated  the 
town,  and  cross  currents  at  once  manifested  them- 
selves. January  14,  1766,  the  proprietors  turned  down 
the  proposal  to  build  a  meeting-house ;  but  two  months 
later,  March  17,  they  met  and  organized  at  the 
school  house  and  then,  for  reasons  unknown,  adjourned 
to  Lieut.  Benj.  Simonds's  tavern,  which  then  stood  on 
the  site  of  Mr.  N.  Henry  Sabin's  present  home,  and 
there  "Voted  to  Build  a  meeting  House  also  voted  that 
said  meeting  House  be  forty  feet  in  Length  and  thirty 
feet  in  Breadth  Voted  to  finish  Said  House  in  two 
year  Voted  said  House  be  Studed  and  Bracesed 
Voted  to  plaister  as  far  as  is  Needed  Voted  to  lay  the 
uper  floer  on  the  top  of  the  jice  and  Laith  and  Plaister 
on  the  under  Side  of  the  jice  Voted  and  chose 
Nehemiah  Smedley  Samuel  San  ford  Richard  Stratton 
Commetree  to  finish  Said  meeting  House  Voted  to 
Raise  three  Pounds  on  each  Right  to  Build  Said 
meeting  House  Voted  to  Leave  the  Rest  of  Said  work 
of  sd  House  to  the  Discrestion  of  Said  Commetree." 

In  March,  1768,  Benjamin  Simonds  was  appointed 
to  this  committee  "in  the  room  of  mr  Samuel  San- 
ford."  This  change  may  possibly  be  accounted  for  by 
what  later  transpires. 

Difference  of  opinion  arose  as  to  the  proper 
location  of  the  building,  and  at  the  end  of  the  two 
years  which  were  to  have  seen  the  house  completed  it 
had  not  been  begun.  Men  of  influence  had  settled 
"in  the  South  Part,"  and  there  was  strong  demand 


Page  sixty-one 


that  the  meeting  house  should  stand  on  the  Stone  Hill 
road  near  the  center  of  the  township. 

At  a  meeting  in  the  school  house  April  18,  1768, 
"to  See  if  the  Proprietors  will  appoint  a  Place  where  to 
Sett  a  meeting  House  or  to  Com  into  any  measures 
for  the  Same;  to  See  if  the  Proprietors  will  agree 
with  the  town  to  Chuse  a  Place  for  the  meeting  House 
or  to  chuse  a  Commete  for  the  Same;  to  See  if  the 
Proprietors  will  forbid  the  Commetee  to  Raise  the 
said  meeting  House  till  such  time  as  there  is  a  Place 
legally  appointed  for  the  Same ;  to  Give  Instructions  to 
the  Commetee  of  the  meeting  House  that  they  may 
know  How  to  Proceed  concerning  the  Charges  for 
Raising  Said  House,"  it  was  voted  that  the  proprie- 
tors should  proceed  without  allowing  the  town  to 
have  a  voice  in  the  matter.  Voting  according  to  the 
acreage  of  their  holdings,  nine  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  eighty  acres  voted  to  set  the  building  on  the  Square, 
now  Field  Park,  five  thousand  thirty-five  acres  voting 
against  this  location.  It  was  also  "Voted  to  Leave  it 
to  the  Discression  of  the  Commetee  to  Provide  for  the 
Raising  of  Sd  House." 

From  a  review  of  these  votes,  certain  things  appear 
which  hold  our  attention.  First  is  the  conflict  between 
those  who  held  the  first  proprietors'  rights,  and  those 
who  had  bought  lands,  either  on  the  village  street  or  in 
the  other  allotments,  without  acquiring  these  initial 
rights,  and  so  could  vote  in  a  town  meeting  but  not  in 
a  proprietors'  meeting.  It  was  a  state  of  affairs  that 
would  make  in  itself  the  subject  for  an  interesting 
study  by  one  competent  to  handle  it. 

The  second  point  that  engages  attention  is  the  way 
the  vote  was  taken  on  the  locating  of  the  meeting- 
house. Here  the  old  English  rule  of  property  voting 
was  followed.  The  votes  were  counted  by  acres  and 


Page  sixty-two 


not  by  show  of  hands.  Apparently  this  was  an  excep- 
tion to  the  common  rule  in  the  proprietors'  meetings, 
and  was  not  consistent  with  the  later  laying  of  rates 
"on  Eaich  Proprietor  Right,"  and  not  on  land  holdings. 
It  looks  as  if  a  clever  trick  were  sprung  on  the 
meeting. 

And  finally,  the  vote,  though  nearly  two  to  one  in 
favor  of  the  ^location  on  the  Square,  shows  that  there 
were  strong  differences  of  opinion  and  antagonisms 
of  interests  among  the  proprietors  themselves.  They 
were  not  all  saints  in  those  days,  but  men  of  like 
passions  as  ourselves. 

There  is  no  contemporary  picture  of  that  first 
church  building  extant;  but  its  plan  and  general 
appearance  are  known.  As  already  indicated,  it  was 
forty  feet  by  thirty  on  the  ground,  the  greater  length 
and  the  ridgepole  running  north  and  south.  There  was 
but  one  door,  and  that  was  in  the  middle  of  the  east 
side.  There  was  one  broad  aisle  leading  from  the 
door  to  the  pulpit,  which  was  high  up  on  the  west  wall. 
The  seats  ran  east  and  west,  so  that  the  congregation 
sat  facing  the  middle  aisle  and  must  turn  sidewise  to 
look  toward  the  pulpit.  The  seats  rose  in  tiers  from 
the  aisle  to  the  end  walls.  There  were  galleries  in  the 
gable  ends  north  and  south  and  under  these  were  box 
pews.  The  building,  which  was  completed  probably 
some  time  in  the  late  spring  or  summer  of  1770,  was 
so  strongly  put  together  that  it  was  moved  a  few  rods 
further  west  when  the  second  meeting-house  was 
erected,  and  was  used  as  a  school  house  in  the  summer- 
time, becoming  through  neglect  more  and  more  of  an 
eyesore  to  the  neighbors  until  in  1828  someone,  acting 
perhaps  on  the  suggestion  of  one  of  these  neighbors, 
set  fire  to  it,  and  probably  no  effort  was  made  to 
extinguish  the  flames. 


Page  sixty-three 


It  was  a  hard  blow  to  the  small  and  struggling 
church  when  it  lost  its  first  and  much  beloved 
minister.  It  remained  without  a  pastor  through  the 
next  three  years.  Those  were  years  in  which  the  older 
churches  in  the  colonies  as  well  as  the  new  suffered 
much  from  the  disturbances  caused  by  the  war.  Still 
the  Church  of  Christ  in  Williamstown  was  loyal  to  its 
covenant  obligations.  On  the  first  page  of  the  oldest 
records  now  in  our  possession,  we  read  that  on 
February  18,  1779,  the  church  being  then  without  a 
pastor,  Sampson  How  and  Nathanael  Sanford  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  visit  a  certain  brother  and 
"enquire  the  reason  of  his  absenting  himself  from 
communion."  The  church  members  were  not  wholly 
dependent  upon  a  learned,  orthodox  minister  to  keep 
them  to  a  sense  of  their  responsibilities,  but  could 
maintain  the  discipline  of  the  church  without  teacher 
or  pastor. 

Possibly  during  this  time  they  were  prosecuting  the 
search  for  a  minister  with  the  same  discouragements 
they  had  met  before  they  secured  Mr.  Welch.  In 
Connecticut  an  association  made  record  in  1779  of 
"the  dark  Aspect  upon  our  Churches  in  the  Discourage- 
ment lying  upon  Candidates  entering  into  the  Ministry 
and  the  present  distress  and  difficulties  of  them  that 
are  already  in  office — from  which  we  fear  these 
Churches  may  be  left  without  Lights  in  the  Candle- 
stick." But  patience  was  rewarded,  if  patience  was 
required,  and  a  light  was  found  for  the  Williamstown 
candlestick. 

At  that  meeting  of  the  church  to  which  reference 
has  just  been  made,  February  18,  1779,  it  was  "voted 
to  call  Mr.  Seth  Swift  to  settle  in  the  work  of  the 
gospel  Ministry  in  this  town."  On  April  ist,  the 
church  met  and  "voted  that  the  Association  of  this 


Page  sixty-four 


County  be  the  ordaining  Council  and  that  Isaac  Strat- 
ton,  Samuel  Kellogg  and  David  Noble  be  a  Committee 
to  write  letters  missive  to  the  pastors  and  chhs  for  their 
assistance  in  ordaining  the  said  Mr.  Seth  Swift  on  the 
26th  of  May  next." 

Mr.  Swift  continued  his  ministry  here  for  nearly 
twenty-eight  years,  "much  esteemed,  dearly  beloved, 
*  *  *  *  verv  faithful  and  laborious,"  received 
two  hundred  and  seventy-three  into  the  membership  of 
the  church,  and  on  Sunday,  February  15,  1807,  after  a 
short  illness,  "died  in  the  midst  of  great  usefulness, 
while  God  was  pouring  out  His  Spirit  here  and  giving 
him  many  seals  of  his  ministry." 

Mr.  Swift,  like  Mr.  Welch,  was  a  Connecticut 
man,  a  native  of  Kent,  the  town  adjoining  New 
Milford.  It  is  quite  likely  that  Mrs.  Welch,  who  had 
returned  to  her  New  Milford  home,  may  have  had 
some  influence  in  the  choice  or  consent  of  her  husband's 
successor  in  office.  Mr.  Swift  was  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College  in  the  class  of  1774.  He  is  described  as  "a 
little  above  medium  stature,  with  a  strong  frame  and 
large  features,  not  at  all  studious  of  the  graces  of  dress, 
manners  or  conversation,  warm  and  open  in  his  temper, 
evangelical  in  his  religious  views,  serious  in  the  general 
tone  of  his  intercourse  with  his  people,  zealous  in  the 
labors  of  the  ministry,  decided  in  his  opinions,  and 
prudent  and  energetic  in  his  measures."  He  was 
withal  of  quite  a  different  type  from  Whitman  Welch. 
All  desirable  qualities  are  not  given  to  any  one  man, 
and  Seth  Swift  was  an  able  and  faithful  minister  and 
under  him  the  church  went  forward  from  victory  to 
victory. 

Near  the  middle  point  of  Mr.  Swift's  pastorate  we 
find  another  of  those  crossings  of  the  ways  which  are 
engaging  our  attention.  No  years  in  all  the  history  of 


Page  sixty-five 


the  town  have  been  as  momentous  as  those  from  1791 
to  1796.  The  events  of  those  years  gave  Williamstown 
its  distinctive  character,  differentiating  it  from  the 
other  towns  then  coming  into  being  at  this  end  of  the 
state,  and  opening  here  springs  of  worldwide  influence. 
At  this  time  there  came  into  the  life  of  the  church  a 
new  current  which  for  sixty  years  dominated  its  whole 
life  and  still  largely  affects  it,  though  less  directly. 
The  history  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  of 
church  life  would  be  largely  unintelligible,  if  one  were 
ignorant  of  this  influence.  It  is  to  be  fully  presented 
this  afternoon;  but  it  cannot  be  wholly  omitted  from 
the  larger  survey  of  the  history  of  the  town  and  church 
to  which  this  morning  hour  is  assigned. 

We  have  already  recalled  that  the  settlement  on 
our  four  hills  and  in  the  adjacent  valleys  was  first 
known  as  West  Hoosac,  or  "the  West  Township." 
Col.  Ephraim  Williams,  Commander  of  Fort  Massa- 
chusetts, 1747-51  and  1754-5,  being  unmarried,  was 
moved  by  the  desire  which  is  common  to  men  to  leave 
their  names  behind  them  in  some  form  more  enduring 
than  the  short  memory  of  a  generation.  He  was  also 
regardful  of  the  disadvantages  suffered  by  youth  who 
grow  up  in  a  small  frontier  settlement  far  from  the 
educational  advantages  of  older  communities,  and  in 
a  letter  which  he  sent  to  his  cousin  Israel  Williams  of 
Hatfield  with  his  last  will  and  testament  he  declared 
his  chief  concern  in  making  that  will  to  be  for  these 
"poor  creatures."  By  the  will  itself,  he  used  the  second 
of  these  interests  to  secure  the  first.  He  gave  the 
residuum  of  his  estate  "toward  the  support  and  main- 
tainance  of  a  Free  School  in  a  township  west  of  Fort 
Massachusetts,  commonly  called  the  West  Township, 
forever;  provided,  the  said  township  shall  fall  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay ; 


Page  sixty-six 


and  provided,  also,  the  Governor  and  General  Court 
give  the  same  township  the  name  of  Williamstown." 
This  gift  made  it  sure  that  the  settlers  in  the  West 
Township  would  see  to  it  that  the  Governor  and 
General  Court  gave  the  township  the  name  proposed, 
and  so  secured  to  the  worthy  Colonel  perpetual 
remembrance.  The  will  was  drawn  in  Albany,  New 
York,  July  29,  1755.  Col.  Williams  was  killed  in  "The 
Bloody  Morning  Scout"  near  the  head  of  Lake  George, 
September  8th  of  the  same  year.  His  executors 
managed  his  estate  with  becoming  care  and  acted  with 
considerable  deliberation.  After  long  delay,  the  free 
school  was  established,  was  housed  in  a  building  so 
well  planned  and  put  together  that  it  is  still  standing 
where  it  was  set  in  the  middle  of  the  main  street  "south 
of  Mr.  William  Horsford's  house,"  and  its  doors  were 
finally  opened  to  receive  the  youth  of  the  town,  for 
whom  it  was  founded,  on  October  20,  1791 ;  but  already 
other  schemes  were  afoot. 

"The  initial  step  toward  the  transformation  of  the 
Free  School  into  a  college  was.  taken  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  trustees,  May  23,  1792.  In  a  petition 
to  the  legislature  they  humbly  showed  what  had 
been  done  already,  and  set  forth  the  'several 
circumstances  attending  the  situation  of  the  Free 
School  *  *  *  *  peculiarly  favorable  to  a  semin- 
ary of  a  more  public  and  important  nature.'  The 
petition  was  granted  and  an  act  to  establish  the  college 
and  to  transfer  to  it  the  property  of  the  Free  School 
was  passed  June  22,  1793."  (Cf.  Williams  Coll.  Cata- 
logue, 1914,  p.  21 ).  The  petition  was  opposed;  but 
there  was  no  appeal  from  the  action  of  the  General 
Court.  The  property  was  transferred.  Western 
Massachusetts  gained  a  college ;  but  Williamstown  lost 
the  free  school  which  Ephraim  Williams  designed  for 


Page  sixty-seven 


its  children.  After  studying  the  earlier  history,  it  was 
natural  to  turn  to  the  catalogue  of  the  college  to  find 
what  provision  was  made  for  perpetuating  in  some 
fashion  the  dream  of  the  founder  and  carrying  it 
into  effect.  I  thought  to  find  there  at  least  some  free 
scholarships  provided  and  reserved  for  Williamstown 
youth.  I  find  none.  I  am  informed  that  a  generous 
individual  is  providing  annually  for  the  aid  of  students 
from  Berkshire  County,  and  in  this  benefaction 
Williamstown  youth  may  share ;  but  the  college,  except 
as  it  may  show  preference  in  individual  cases,  reveals 
no  sense  of  obligation  to  carry  into  effect  Ephraim 
Williams's  purpose  to  make  provision  in  particular  for 
the  education  of  the  youth  of  the  town  to  which  his 
name  was  given.  Of  course  that  initial  gift  of  nine 
thousand  one  hundred  fifty-seven  dollars  seems 
pitifully  small  in  comparison  with  later  benefactions; 
but,  without  that,  there  would  have  been  none  of  these 
larger  contributions  to  the  treasury  of  Williams 
College ;  for  there  would  have  been  no  Williams  College 
treasury  to  receive  them.  And  it  may  also  be  worth 
noting  that,  had  the  original  nine  thousand  one  hundred 
fifty-seven  dollars  been  compounded  at  current  rates 
of  interest,  allowing  even  six  per  cent,  for  the  period 
from  March  8,  1785,  when  "The  Trustees  of  the  Dona- 
tion of  Ephraim  Williams,  Esq.,  for  the  maintaining  of' 
a  Free  School  in  Williamstown"  were  incorporated  and 
empowered  to  receive  from  the  executors  of  the  will 
the  proceeds  of  their  trust,  that  meager  endowment 
would  today  have  grown  to  over  eighteen  million  nine 
hundred  forty-one  thousand  dollars.  The  thought 
suggests  itself  that,  in  view  of  these  facts,  it  would  be 
a  gracious,  a  seemly  act,  and  one  particularly  appro- 
priate in  this  anniversary  year,  if  the  trustees  of 
the  college,  the  present  administrators  of  "the  Dona- 


Page  sixty-eight 


tion  of  Ephraim  Williams,  Esq.,  for  the  maintaining  of 
a  Free  School  in  Williamstown,"  should  set  apart 
sufficient  funds  for  the  endowment  of  one  or  two 
"Ephraim  Williams  Scholarships,"  to  be  designated  and 
reserved  for  the  aid  of  Williamstown  students,  those 
"still  unborn"  whom  the  founder  had  particularly  in 
mind  in  making  his  bequest. 

As  to  the  large  advantage  ultimately  accruing  to 
the  town  and  to  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Williamstown 
from  that  transformation  of  the  free  school  into  a 
"seminary  of  more  public  and  important  nature"  there 
can  be  no  question,  whatever  opposition  there  may 
have  been  in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century 
to  the  ambitious  plans  of  the  first  trustees  of  the  free 
school.  One  of  the  first  effects  of  this  change  from  a 
modest  free  school,  teaching  English  branches  and 
drawing  its  students  from  the  immediate  vicinage,  to 
an  ambitious  college  drawing  its  students  from  a  wider 
area  appeared  in  the  demand  for  a  new  meeting-house. 

Though  rude,  like  their  own  regulation  houses,  the 
first  church  building  served  the  needs  of  the  towns- 
people sufficiently  well  until  after  the  free  school 
had  been  transformed  into  a  college.  That  transfor- 
mation brought  into  the  town  a  new  voice,  the  voice 
of  the  student  body.  What  seemed  good  enough  for 
the  village  fathers  was  not  good  enough  for  these 
boys  gathered  from  other  towns,  nor  was  the  building 
large  enough  for  its  new  uses.  Before  the  second 
class,  that  of  1796,  was  graduated,  there  were  angry 
mutterings.  Thomas  Robbins  from  Norfolk,  Connecti- 
cut, a  member  of  that  class,  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Ammi 
Ruhama  Robbins  of  whom  I  have  already  spoken, 
wrote  in  his  diary  September  7,  1796,  "A  scandal  to 
have  Commencement  in  such  an  old  meeting-house." 
Nor  were  the  students  content  with  mere  words. 


Page  sixty-nine 


July  i,  of  that  year,  Robbins  wrote:  "The  meeting- 
house assaulted,  more  or  less,  every  night;"  and  on 
July  15:  "Great  disturbance  in  town  on  account  of 
the  meeting-house  being  set  on  fire  last  night.  It  was 
happily  extinguished.  Various  conjectures  about  the 
perpetrators."  All  this  bespoke  the  impatience  of 
youth.  Already  a  movement  had  been  initiated  toward 
providing  a  more  attractive  and  ample  edifice.  As  early 
as  January  19,  Robbins  had  written:  "The  President 
has  started  a  subscription  for  a  meeting-house.  It  is 
circulating."  And  he  had  at  least  one  word  of  praise 
for  those  who  worshipped  in  the  old  house.  On  July 
10  he  wrote :  "They  sing  well  here." 

The  old  contention  as  to  the  proper  location  of  the 
meeting-house  died  hard.  In  January,  1777,  the  town 
voted  to  build  a  meeting-house  near  the  center  of  the 
town.  A  stake  was  set  on  the  top  of  Stone  Hill,  and 
the  site  was  approved  by  vote  of  the  town  in  July, 
1781 ;  but  nothing  came  of  it  all.  In  September,  1796, 
the  town  agreed  to  the  building  of  a  new  house  on  the 
old  site,  the  old  house  to  be  moved  back  and  used  as 
a  town-house.  That  matter  being  settled,  subscriptions 
were  secured  more  rapidly,  the  amounts  showing  large 
liberality  on  the  part  of  the  townspeople,  who  were 
still  dwelling  in  small  and  rude  houses;  but  who  built 
for  the  Lord  a  house  worthy  of  His  name.  This 
second  house  was  seventy-six  feet  long  by  fifty-five 
feet  wide,  its  length  running  east  and  west,  and  it 
cost  about  six  thousand  dollars.  Thomas  Robbins,  that 
sharp  critic  of  the  earlier  building,  being  in  Williams- 
town  in  September,  1799,  to  receive  his  degree  as 
Master  of  Arts,  wrote  in  his  diary :  "There  is  the  best 
meeting  house  here  I  have  ever  been  in."  Though 
much  more  ambitious  in  design  than  the  first  house,  the 
second  was  not  as  well  built  and,  later  on,  serious 


Page  seventy 


structural  weakness  developed  in  the  west  end,  which 
was  remedied  by  an  unsightly  system  of  bracing  and 
buttressing. 

In  his  centennial  discourse  of  November  19,  1865, 
the  Rev.  Mason  Noble  gave  some  details  concerning  the 
early  form  of  the  building  and  of  the  changes  which 
had  been  made  in  the  course  of  the  years.  He  said: 
"The  old  church  itself  is  here.  It  has  indeed  in  the 
interior  put  on  a  new  and  more  modern  look.  The 
lofty  arched  ceiling,  the  massive  pillars  below  the 
galleries  and  the  gracefully  fluted  columns  above 
supporting  the  roof,  the  pulpit  perched  so  high  against 
the  wall  that  it  cramped  the  necks  of  us  boys  who 
looked  for  any  length  of  time  to  the  preacher,  the 
deacons'  seat  at  its  foot  with  its  fixed  communion 
table,  and  the  great  broad  aisle  in  the  center,  *  *  * 
the  dear  old  square,  roomy  pews  *  *  *  these  are 
all  gone  forever.  *  *  *  Outside  we  find  the  old 
church  in  most  respects  as  it  was  from  the  beginning, 
though  we  cannot  but  miss  the  graceful  and  lofty 
steeple  which  so  wakened  the  wonder  of  our  childhood 
and  helped  to  connect  the  church  below  with  the  bright 
heavens  into  which  the  spire  seemed  almost  to 
penetrate.  Even  the  'Pine  Apple'  which  in  after  years 
took  the  place  of  the  departed  spire  is  now  gone.  But 
we  are  glad  to  know  that  it  is  the  purpose  of  those 
who  have  made  these  modern  improvements  to  restore 
the  ancient  glories  of  the  steeple  of  1798."  "We 
rejoice,"  he  said,  "that  those  who  come  after  us  have  a 
house  for  God  so  convenient  in  all  its  arrangements 
and  so  well  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  divine  worship." 

I  am  not  free  to  give  a  detailed  history  of  Mr. 
Swift's  pastorate  nor  of  those  which  followed  down 
to  the  middle  of  Mr.  Ballard's.  Through  these  years 
the  religious  life  of  the  church  and  of  the  college  were 


Page  seventy-one 


so  intimately  intermingled  that  they  make  properly  one 
narrative,  which  we  are  to  hear  this  afternoon,  and 
courtesy  forbids  all  avoidable  trespassing  on  the  field 
particularly  assigned  to  another  speaker.  Outside  those 
interests  in  which  college  and  church  shared,  there  were 
few  high  places  or  meetings  of  paths  during  these  years. 

Mr.  Swift  continued  in  the  pastorate  until  his  death 
on  Sunday,  February  15,  1807.  During  the  next  five 
years  the  church  was  without  a  minister.  President 
Fitch,  who  was  ordained  by  the  Berkshire  Association 
on  June  17,  1795,  and  others  supplied  the  pulpit,  and 
Deacon  Ebenezer  Stratton  did  the  work  of  a  pastor. 

The  Rev.  Walter  King  was  installed  July  7,  1814, 
and  died  December  i,  1815,  stricken  down  by  apoplexy. 
Mr.  King  was  a  man  of  fine  nature,  markedly 
evangelical  spirit  and  wide  experience,  though  he  had 
suffered  from  ill  health  from  his  early  years. 

After  a  ten  months  interim,  Mr.  King  was 
succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Ralph  Wells  Gridley,  who 
served  until  April  27,  1834.  Mr.  Gridley's  personality 
and  varied  service  and  experience  greatly  tempt  one  to 
narrative  and  comment;  but  this  would  take  us  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  relations  of  the  church  and  the 
college.  The  difficulties  springing  from  those  relations 
finally  led  Mr.  Gridley  to  resign  the  pastorate. 

The  next  three  pastorates  were  short.  The  Rev. 
Joseph  Alden  was  installed  July  3,  1834;  but  after  a 
year's  service  resigned  his  office  to  accept  a  professor- 
ship in  Williams  College.  The  Rev.  Albert  Smith 
served  from  February  n,  1836,  to  May  6,  1838,  and 
then  imitated  his  predecessor,  resigning  his  pastorate  to 
become  a  professor  in  Marshall  College,  Pennsylvania. 
The  Rev.  Amos  Savage  was  installed  January  22,  1840, 
and  was  dismissed  on  January  30,  1843,  after  which  he 
became  an  agent  of  the  American  Tract  Society. 


Page  seventy-two 


THE  REVEREND  ABSALOM  PETERS 


The  Rev.  Absalom  Peters,  D.  D.,  had  a  longer 
pastorate,  extending  from  November  20,  1844,  to 
November,  1853.  His  services  were  intermittent 
during  the  latter  part  of  this  time,  the  church  giving 
him  extended  leave  of  absence  to  act  as  financial 
agent  of  the  college,  and  finally  releasing  him  from 
the  pastorate  that  he  might  devote  his  entire  time  to 
that  work. 

If  the  story  of  Mr.  Gridley's  resignation  were  fully 
told,  it  might  cast  some  light  on  a  notable  point  in  this 
part  of  our  records.  Here  are  four  men  in  succession 
who  turn  to  other  callings  after  holding  pastorates  in 
the  Williamstown  church.  Their  experiences  here  did 
not  make  them  feel  that  the  life  of  a  Christian  pastor 
was  the  only  life  that  could  content  them.  They  did 
not  find  it  a  bed  of  roses.  Conditions  changed  during 
the  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  Addison  Ballard  who  was 
installed  September  4,  1857,  and  of  whom  I  shall 
speak  later.  Between  the  pastorates  of  Dr.  Peters  and 
Mr.  Ballard,  the  church  was  served  most  faithfully 
and  acceptably  by  the  Rev.  Henry  R.  Hoisington;  but 
he  was  never  installed  as  pastor  and  finally,  on  that 
account,  refused  to  serve  further. 

During  these  years  which  I  am  constrained  to  pass 
over,  there  were  times  of  high  spiritual  experience, 
times  of  large  ingatherings  into  the  church,  and  times 
of  dearth  when  the  rolls  shrank.  There  was  the 
ever  pressing,  and  always  difficult,  problem  of  raising 
the  funds  required  for  carrying  forward  the  work. 
There  were  those  too  frequent  changes  in  leadership; 
the  pastorates  short;  the  interim  between  pastorates 
sometimes  long,  the  pulpit  during  these  periods  being 
filled  by  members  of  the  college  faculty,  or  by  acting 
pastors  and  irregular  supplies.  There  were  times  of 
great  disheartenment  as  witnessed  at  the  annual 


Page  seventy~three 


meeting  in  1859,  when  the  remarks  of  the  brethren  on 
"the  spiritual  destitution  of  the  community  and  the 
low  state  of  piety  in  the  church"  so  depressed  the 
pastor,  Mr.  Ballard,  that  he  excused  himself  from  the 
usual  reading  of  the  Covenant. 

If  time  permitted,  as  it  does  not,  it  might  be 
interesting  to  dwell  on  that  financial  problem;  the 
complications  that  arose  from  the  division  of  authority 
between  proprietors  and  town;  the  organization  of  a 
legally  constituted  parish  in  1829  and  a  new  parish  in 
1856;  the  relations  of  parish  to  church  and  church  to 
parish  in  respect  to  the  appropriation  of  Sunday 
collections,  etc.,  but  all  this  we  must  pass  by  with 
brief  mention. 

During  this  period  other  churches  were  organized 
in  the  town  and  in  North  Adams  which  drew  from  the 
membership  of  the  First  Church  here.  Of  the  twenty- 
two  original  members  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church  in  North  Adams,  organized  April  19,  1827, 
seventeen  brought  letters  from  the  First  Church  of 
Williamstown,  the  remaining  five  entering  on  con- 
fession of  faith.  In  1770,  of  two  hundred  and  twenty 
polls,  rated  for  town  taxes,  two  hundred  and  seven 
were  rated  "for  the  minister's  tax,"  the  remaining 
thirteen  claiming  exemption  on  account  of  being 
connected  with  denominations  other  than  the 
Congregational. 

The  second  church  organization  in  the  town  was 
formed  by  the  Baptists.  In  May,  1791,  the  town 
refused  "to  incorporate  Matthew  Dunning  and  fourteen 
others  into  a  Baptist  Society;"  but  Dunning  and  his 
associates  were  not  to  be  vanquished,  and  in  1792,  the 
town  chose  Isaac  Holmes  as  "tythingman  for  the 
Baptists."  In  1829,  Prof.  Kellogg  wrote  of  them, 
"They  have  never  had  a  settled  minister ;  but  sometimes 


Page  seventy-four 


hire  one  for  a  year.  The  church  of  that  denomination 
here  included  some  members  from  Hancock ;  but  was 
always  small  and  was  dissolved  about  1811.  Some  of 
the  members  of  it  united  with  the  church  in  Berlin, 
New  York.  After  two  or  three  years  another  Baptist 
Church  was  formed  which  now  consists  of  forty-three 
members." 

In  the  same  article  from  which  this  record  is  taken, 
Prof.  Kellogg  wrote  of  the  Methodists :  "The  Metho- 
dists in  this  town  have  always  been  few,  and  now  are 
only  a  small  number  of  families."  They  made  a  late 
start,  but  a  characteristically  vigorous  growth  after  the 
start  was  fairly  made.  They  organized  a  church  some- 
time previous  to  1821 ;  but  worshipped  for  quite  a 
number  of  years  in  the  homes  of  the  members. 

We  have  already  reviewed  at  some  length  the  early 
contentions  as  to  the  site  of  the  first  meeting-house. 
The  opposition  to  the  site  on  Main  street  came  from 
men  living  in  the  south  part  of  the  town.  Their 
contention  had  weight  and  was  entitled  to  more 
consideration  than  was  given  to  it  by  the  proprietors. 
If  the  town  had  settled  the  matter,  the  house  would 
have  stood  "near  the  center  of  the  town"  as  the  votes 
in  town  meetings  made  plain.  Attempts  were  made  to 
right  what  was  felt  to  be  an  injustice. 

March  8,  1779,  the  town  voted  that  the  South  part 
should  have  their  portion  of  preaching  until  there 
should  be  a  meeting-house  in  the  center. 

January  24,  1785,  it  was  voted  by  the  town  to  build 
a  meeting-house  in  the  South  part,  the  town  to  pay 
toward  the  building  the  assessed  value  of  the  meeting- 
house in  the  North  part,  subsequently  fixed  at  one 
hundred  seventy  pounds.  This  plan  failed.  Feeling 
ran  so  high  that  in  January,  1794,  a  vote  was  taken  on 
a  proposal  to  divide  the  town ;  but  this  was  negatived. 


Page  seventy-five 


Finally,  about  1812,  a  meeting-house  was  erected  in 
South  Williamstown,  at  a  cost  of  about  three  thousand 
five  hundred  dollars,  by  the  united  efforts  of  Con- 
gregationalists  and  Baptists,  who  used  it  jointly. 
The  pastors  of  the  First  Church  preached  "in  the 
South  Part"  every  third  Sunday  from  early  in  Mr. 
Swift's  pastorate  down  to  and  including  the  pastorate 
of  Mr.  Alden.  When  new  stoves  and  pipe  were  bought 
for  the  meeting-house  on  the  Square  at  a  cost  of 
nine  hundred  dollars  in  the  fall  of  1834,  it  was  voted, 
"to  abate  the  tax  that  shall  fall  on  the  members  in  the 
south  part  of  the  town  in  any  instance  that  is  desired." 
The  South  Williamstown  church  was  organized  in 
1836.  On  January  18  of  that  year  the  First  Parish 
voted  to  release  from  further  obligations  to  itself  any 
members  who  joined  the  Second  Parish.  When  a  call 
was  extended  to  the  Rev.  Albert  Smith,  the  parish 
voted,  "that  the  ministerial  labors  of  Mr.  Smith  be 
confined  to  the  North  part  of  this  town ;"  but  in  April, 
1845,  Dr.  Peters,  at  his  own  request,  was  granted  "the 
privilege  of  preaching  one-third  of  the  time,  college 
vacations  excepted,  at  South  Williamstown."  The 
long  contention  between  the  North  part  and  the  South 
part  concerning  the  meeting-house  came  at  last  to  an 
end ;  but  peace  was  not  yet  upon  Israel ;  other  contests 
were  already  brewing. 

The  first  settlers  had  taken  up  the  lots  and  built 
their  houses  west  of  North  and  South  streets.  Before 
1856,  the  center  of  population  on  the  main  street  had 
moved  eastward,  and  in  time  there  arose  an  effort  to 
have  the  meeting-house  moved  in  the  same  direction. 
A  lecture  room  was  built  on  Park  street,  where 
St.  John's  Church  now  stands,  and  was  first  used  on 
December  20  of  that  year ;  but  the  east  end  purposed 
something  more. 


Page  seventy-six 


On  Wednesday,  April  13,  1859,  in  the  parish  meet- 
ing, Keyes  Danforth,  of  a  committee  chosen  at  a 
meeting  of  the  proprietors  of  the  meeting-house  in 
response  to  a  suggestion  of  the  parish  made  January 
26,  "made  report  of  the  expense  of  moving  the 
meeting-house  into  Park  St.  Also  reported  the  names 
of  the  Proprietors  of  the  Meeting-house  that  would 
give  up  their  slips  to  the  Parish,  and  upon  what  terms." 
Apparently,  the  expenses  reported  were  too  great ;  for 
the  parish  voted  not  to  move  the  building. 

In  the  records  of  that  meeting,  if  you  have  under- 
stood the  terminology,  you  will  recognize  a  complex 
of  interests  and  forces,  a  crossing  of  paths,  where 
wisdom  was  greatly  needed.  The  proprietors  here 
mentioned  were  not  proprietors  of  the  township.  That 
body  was  dissolved  early  in  the  century,  holding  its 
last  meeting  of  record  April  7,  1802.  The  "Proprie- 
tors" of  1859  were  the  owners  of  the  meeting-house, 
successors  to  the  titles  in  the  property  held  by  the 
subscribers  to  its  building  in  1796-8.  The  parish  was, 
as  it  is  today,  a  corporation  composed  in  part,  but  only 
in  part,  of  members  of  the  church.  The  church  used 
the  property,  was  looked  to  in  the  main  for  providing 
the  income  of  the  parish,  yet  had  no  ownership  or 
control  of  the  property  or  of  expenditures  for  salaries, 
etc.  And  each  of  these  bodies  was  divided  on  the 
question  at  issue.  It  was  not  a  condition  conducive  to 
peace  or  highest  welfare,  material  or  spiritual. 

An  effort  was  made  at  this  time,  as  you  note,  to 
ease  the  situation  by  the  parish  acquiring  the  titles 
held  by  the  proprietors.  That  would  end  one  conflict; 
but  the  effort  was  not  successful.  At  another  time, 
an  effort  was  made  to  have  the  church  take  over  the 
rights  and  responsibilities  of  the  parish,  as  many 
churches  have  done,  and  so  avoid  a  repetition  of  con- 


Page  seventy-seven 


flicts  which  have  sometimes  arisen  between  these  two 
bodies ;  but  this  effort  was  unsuccessful  like  the  other. 
In  Williamstown  no  conflict  between  the  two  has  ever 
been  serious  enough  to  force  a  serious  consideration  of 
that  question.  The  time  may  come  here,  as  it  has  come 
elsewhere,  when  the  matter  will  have  vital  importance. 

The  result  of  this  meeting  left  one  section  in 
parish  and  church  dissatisfied.  How  strong  the  feeling 
was  we  shall  see  later  on. 

The  question  of  moving  the  house  having  been 
settled,  at  least  for  the  time  being,  it  was  remodeled 
and  renovated  in  a  thoroughgoing  fashion,  making  it, 
as  Mr.  Noble  said,  "a  house  of  God  convenient  in  all 
its  arrangements  and  well  adapted  to  the  purposes  of 
divine  worship." 

A  coincidence  of  dates  is  here  worth  noticing.  The 
college  had  its  own  separate  church  organization  from 
June  15,  1834;  but  it  continued  to  join  with  the  village 
church  in  Sabbath  morning  worship  until  1859,  when 
the  Alumni  Hall  Chapel  was  built,  and  from  that  time 
onward,  the  college  maintained  its  own  separate 
services.  It  might  have  been  thought  that  this  change 
would  have  meant  large  loss  to  the  village  church  in 
every  way.  Such  a  withdrawing  from  a  church  of  a 
large  part  of  its  congregation  usually  means  a  large 
financial  loss ;  sometimes  it  means  ruin.  But  here  we 
find  this  prompt  engagement  in  costly  repairs  and 
improvements  immediately  after  the  withdrawal  of 
the  college  from  the  long-continued  fellowship  in 
worship.  The  truth  is  that  the  church  did  not  suffer 
any  financial  loss  through  this  withdrawal.  As  far 
back  as  October  n,  1830,  the  parish,  under  what 
pressure  we  do  not  know,  "voted  that  all  Parish  taxes 
assessed  upon  the  Officers  and  Students  of  Williams 
College  be  hereafter  abated."  From  that  time  on,  the 


Page  se  veniy-eight 


townspeople  received  spiritual  benefits  from  fellowship 
in  worship  with  the  officers  and  students  of  the  college, 
but  no  large  and  assured  financial  support;  though  in 
order  to  have  available  a  spacious  auditorium,  the 
college  made  a  large  contribution  to  the  building  of 
the  third  church  as  it  had  to  the  second.  And  so  it 
was  that  the  church  was  as  able  to  undertake  the  work 
of  repairing  and  improving  its  house  after  the  with- 
drawal of  the  college  as  it  was  before  the  separation. 
It  is  quite  possible  too  that  the  union  had  been 
continued  quite  as  long  as  was  good  for  the  church. 
It  is  possible  that  at  times  there  had  been  too  much 
control  exercised  or  attempted  by  forceful  presidents 
and  professors,  and  that  there  were  men  in  the  church 
who  were  ready  to  work  more  energetically  when  these 
partners  had  withdrawn ;  but  I  leave  it  to  Dr.  Carter  to 
discuss  that  question. 

On  September  14,  1857,  the  Rev.  Addison  Ballard, 
a  graduate  of  Williams  College,  class  of  1842,  a  man 
of  sensitive  spirit  and  unusual  refinement,  tall  and 
slender,  whose  elegance  in  writing  and  speaking  are 
still  distinctly  remembered,  was  installed  as  pastor  of 
the  church.  In  December,  1864,  after  seven  years  of 
devoted  and  fruitful  service,  he  was  dismissed  from  the 
pastorate,  the  last  pastor  who  occupied  the  pulpit  in 
the  white  meeting-house  on  the  hill.  During  his 
pastorate  he  received  into  the  church  one  hundred  and 
seven  members,  eighty  of  them  on  confession  of  faith. 

From  January  to  October.  1865,  the  pulpit  was 
supplied  by  Prof.  Albert  Hopkins  of  sainted  memory, 
as  it  had  been  from  August,  1838,  to  August,  1839, 
though  Professor  Hopkins  was  not  ordained  to  the 
ministry  until  December  26,  1869. 

On  October  i,  1865,  there  came  to  the  church 
one  of  the  largest  blessings  it  has  ever  enjoyed.  On 


Page  seventy-nine 


that  date,  the  Rev.  Mason  Noble,  whom  the  church 
had  vainly  called  to  the  pastorate  September  19,  1838, 
came  back  to  his  native  town  to  serve  the  church  of 
his  fathers  for  twelve  months.  It  was  an  eventful 
year,  and  God  gave  to  the  people  a  man  of  His  own 
right  hand  to  be  their  leader. 

Eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-five  was  the  centennial 
year  of  the  church  and  of  the  town.  July  26, 
Dr.  Henry  L.  Sabin,  Judge  Keyes  Danforth  and 
Deacon  James  Smedley  were  appointed  a  committee  to 
make  arrangements  for  the  proper  celebration  of  the 
anniversary.  The  church  being  at  this  time  without  a 
pastor,  the  committee  turned  at  once  to  Mr.  Noble, 
then  serving  as  chaplain  of  the  U.  S.  Naval  Academy, 
and  asked  him  to  deliver  the  centennial  address  "at 
some  time  during  the  Autumn,"  and  further  planned 
the  general  order  of  exercises.  September  20,  the 
committee  for  supplying  the  pulpit  invited  Mr.  Noble 
to  occupy  the  pulpit  for  six  months  "and  if  possible 
for  one  year,"  from  October  *st,  "it  being  understood 
that  Mr.  Noble  will  deliver  the  centennial  address  at 
such  time  as  he  and  the  Committee  may  designate." 

As  the  earliest  records  of  the  church  had  been 
destroyed  long  before  this,  the  exact  date  on  which  the 
church  was  organized,  or  on  which  Mr.  Whitman 
Welch  was  ordained,  was  then  unknown,  as  it  is  today. 
For  reasons  not  recorded,  November  19  was  finally 
fixed  upon  as  the  time  for  the  celebration,  and  on  that 
date  the  clerk  of  the  church,  Mr.  Charles  H.  Mather, 
made  record : 

"November  19,  1865.  This  day  set  apart  for  the 
Centennial  opened  with  a  driving  rainstorm.  The 
church  was  however  well  filled.  The  Rev.  Mason 
Noble  delivered  his  discourse,  occupying  one  hour  [of] 
the  morning  and  afternoon  services.  In  the  evening 


Page  eighty 


the  Conference  meeting  was  held  and  the  addresses  and 
prayers  were  of  a  most  interesting  and  impressive 
character.  The  Centennial  was  considered  by  all  as  a 
success,  and  results  for  good  both  in  the  church  and 
town  are  anticipated."  Details  of  the  celebration  are 
given  in  a  pamphlet  which  was  published  at  the  time, 
including  Mr.  Noble's  address. 

Mr.  Noble's  face  has  been  before  me  as  I  have  been 
writing  these  pages.  It  is  a  face  in  which  there  is  a 
combination  and  balance  rarely  seen  of  strength, 
intelligence  and  sweetness.  He  was  manifestly  the 
man  for  the  hour.  He  entered  on  his  work  here  with 
peculiar  advantages.  He  was  born  in  Williamstown, 
March  18,  1809,  a  son  of  Deodatus  Noble,  who  with 
his  brother  Daniel  made  one  of  the  largest  contributions 
to  the  building  of  the  second  meeting-house  and  who 
served  the  church  as  deacon  from  1814  to  1833. 
Mason  Noble  made  part  of  his  preparation  for  college 
in  the  Williamstown  Academy,  and  was  a  graduate  of 
Williams  College  in  the  class  of  1827.  He  united  with 
this  church  in  1826,  the  year  in  which  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  names  were  placed  on  the  rolls,  the  largest 
number  of  accessions  in  any  one  year  in  the  history 
of  the  church.  Ten  of  these  became  ministers  of  the 
Word,  and  one,  Asahel  Foote,  served  the  church  as 
deacon  from  1838  to  1880,  when  he  removed  to 
California. 

Mr.  Noble  was  thus  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
families,  the  traditions  and  the  conditions  of  Williams- 
town  as  a  stranger  and  newcomer  could  not  be.  It 
takes  years  for  a  newcomer  in  any  one  of  our  New 
England  towns  to  become  so  far  familiar  with  all 
these  factors  that  he  can  render  the  fullest  service  to 
the  community.  Mr.  Noble  suffered  no  such  disad- 
vantage ;  nor  was  any  time  lost  in  securing  that  other 


Page  eighty-one 


indispensable  condition  of  a  pastor's  best  service,  that 
is  that  the  people  should  know  him  as  thoroughly  well 
as  he  must  know  them. 

During  the  year  of  his  service  here,  Mr.  Noble  kept 
a  journal  which  reveals  the  consecration,  the  untiring 
energy  and  unfailing  patience  with  which  he  worked 
to  bring  spiritual  blessing  to  the  community.  Review- 
ing the  first  six  months  of  his  service,  he  wrote  on 
March  25 :  "I  have  preached  every  Sabbath  since  I 
came  and  done  a  great  deal  of  extra  work.  Preached 
seventy  sermons  and  had  as  many  prayer-meetings  and 
made  one  hundred  and  thirty  family  visits."  These 
visits  were  devoted  to  reading  of  the  Bible  with 
religious  conversation  and  prayer,  the  subject  of 
personal  religion  and  the  necessity  of  repentence  and 
faith  and  a  new  life  being  pressed  on  young  and  old. 
The  journal  continues:  "I  have  never  worked  harder 
in  my  ministry,  nor  loved  the  Gospel  more,  or  ever 
enjoyed  more  perfect  and  uninterrupted  health.  The 
church  are  somewhat  quickened  and  the  breath  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  seems  to  be  upon  not  a  few  of  the 
unbelievers.  If  God  is  pleased  to  give  this  church  of 
my  fathers  a  glorious  manifestation  of  His  power  and 
love  my  highest  ambition  will  be  gratified,  for  I  have 
longed  ever  since  I  came  to  impart  unto  them  some 
spiritual  gift." 

Such  a  spirit  with  such  labors  could  not  be  unfruit- 
ful. During  that  year  1866,  fifty-nine  new  members 
were  received  into  the  church,  most  of  them  on 
profession  of  faith,  of  whom  Mr.  Charles  Sumner 
Cole,  Mr.  James  Marshall  Hosford,  Miss  Susan  Sedg- 
wick  Hopkins  and  Dr.  Edward  Elias  Mather  are  still 
with  us,  continuing  to  us  the  spiritual  blessing  of 
those  days. 


Page  eighty-two 


January  3,  1866,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
church,  "after  an  address  by  the  pastor  on  the  duty 
of  every  member  of  the  church  being  an  efficient 
co-worker  with  Christ  in  building  up  his  kingdom, 
several  of  the  brethren  followed  [with]  earnest  and 
appropriate  exhortation."  There  was  other  building 
work  ahead  of  them  which  they  did  not  anticipate. 

On  January  21,  1866,  Mr.  Noble  wrote  in  his  jour- 
nal :  "This  has  been  a  very  sad  and  memorable  day  in 
the  history  of  the  church.  The  weather  very  cold  and 
the  walking  slippery  and  dangerous.  Congregations 
smaller  than  on  any  Sabbath  since  I  came  here.  I 
preached  in  the  morning  from  Habbakuk  3:2  on  the 
nature  of  a  true  revival  of  religion,  and  in  the  after- 
noon on  Luke  16:22-23.  The  meetings  were  very 
solemn,  and  considering  them  in  the  light  of  two  very 
crowded  and  solemn  meetings  in  the  North  district 
where  I  preached  on  the  preceding  Thursday  and 
Friday  evenings,  I  thought  that  notwithstanding  the 
small  number  present  we  should  before  long  see  a  great 
'revival.'  While  sitting  in  my  study  and  thinking  such 
thoughts,  the  cry  of  fire  was  heard.  I  saw  it  was  the 
church  already  smoking,  and  in  an  hour  the  old  church 
of  our  fathers  was  in  ashes.  All  debts  on  it  had  just 
been  extinguished,  and  everyone  felt  that  the  way  was 
now  prepared  for  great  usefulness  and  comfort.  I  met 
with  a  few  in  the  lecture  room  at  7  o'clock  and  we 
wept  and  prayed  together  on  what  seemed  to  some  a 
very  dark  providence.  I  read  to  them  the  sixty-fourth 
chapter  of  Isaiah  and  told  them  that,  as  in  the 
beginning  of  the  late  rebellion,  everything  seemed  to 
be  dark  and  terrible  and  mysterious  and  full  of  the 
anger  of  God,  and  yet  the  rebellion  had  been  overruled 
for  the  good  of  the  nation,  so  now  we  ought  not  to 
doubt  a  moment  that  God  had  great  and  merciful 


Page  eighty-three 


designs  toward  the  church.  The  end  which  He  had  in 
view  would  be  gained  and  we  must  trust  Him. 

We  tried  to  attend  to  the  particular  interests  of  the 
Home  prayer-meeting,  as  this  was  our  first  meeting 
of  the  kind.  Some  reports  were  given  of  a  very 
interesting  character  from  the  First  District;  but  the 
other  districts  were  unrepresented  on  account  of  the 
confusion  arising  from  the  conflagration." 

The  church  clerk  recorded  the  time  of  the  fire  as 
"about  an  hour  after  the  close  of  the  afternoon 
service." 

In  the  following  July,  the  Rev.  J.  Qement  French, 
of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  of  Williams  College,  class  of 
1853,  read  before  the  alumni,  on  Tuesday  afternoon, 
July  31,  what  was  designated  "A  Poem"  entitled: 
"Song  of  the  Old  Church  at  Williamstown."  In  this 
occur  these  lines : 

"It  was — is  not — yet  is — old  ruined  shrine, 
Thick  matted  now  with  mem'tys  greenest  moss; 
The  hill  is  bare — its  glory  gone — no  sign 
Save  fire-swept  rocks  which  sunset  glints  across. 
Erst  builded  with  a  snowy  fingered  spire; 
That  fall'n,  it  wore  a  huge  pine  apple  crown; 
The  tower  and  temple,  the  remorseless  fire, 
Unheeding  Sabbath's  sanctity,  struck  down. 
****** 

Oh,  cruel  flames,  your  tongue  proclaims, 

'Old  yield  thee  to  the  new. 

Not  on  this  sacred  hill,  but  down  the  midway  slope, 
Another  fane  of  God  shall  rear  its  modern  cope! 
I  rest  in  peace!    Some  bless  that  Sabbath  fire, 
Yet  others  weep  that  funeral  pyre !'  " 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  those  last  two  lines. 
The  old  contention  concerning  the  site  of  the  meeting- 
house had  never  died  out.  Those  who  had  been  voted 


Page  eighty-four 


down  in  the  meeting  of  April  13,  1859,  and  perhaps 
some  who  then  voted  not  to  move  the  meeting-house  to 
Park  street  on  account  of  the  expense  involved,  now 
saw  the  opportunity  for  a  more  hopeful  effort  to  secure 
their  will.  There  has  been  a  tradition  current  in  the 
town  that  a  difference  of  opinion  and  considerable 
warmth  of  feeling  developed  at  this  time  over  the 
question  as  to  where  the  new  building  should  stand. 
The  official  records  of  church  and  parish  give  no 
intimation  of  any  such  contest.  We  find  simply  that 
on  April  16,  1866,  the  parish : 

"Voted:  to  Commence  Building  a  Church  Edifice 
this  Summer. 

Voted:  to  hear  a  proposition  from  the  owners  of 
the  Post  Office  Lot  for  the  Church  Edifice. 

Voted:  to  accept  the  proposition  of  the  owners 
*  *  *  and  to  pay  them  Forty  seven  hundred  dollars 
for  the  Lot  and  to  build  thereon. 

Voted :  This  Parish  adopt  the  Post  Office  Lot  and 
to  build  thereon." 

Everything  in  this  record  suggests  peace  and  con- 
cord; but  a  leaf  has  been  cut  from  the  parish  book 
which  bore  the  records  of  a  meeting  duly  warned  to 
transact  six  items  of  business,  as  erasures  on  the 
remaining  margin  show,  at  some  date  between  the 
annual  meeting  of  January  8,  and  the  meeting  of 
April  1 6.  This  leaf  bore  records  of  only  one  meeting. 
It  is  entirely  safe  to  say  that  it  was  cut  from  the  book 
with  the  authority  of  the  parish.  One  would  naturally 
wonder  what  was  proposed  and  done  at  that  meeting, 
and  why  the  leaf  was  cut  out.  If  we  had  only  the 
official  records,  we  would  have  no  light  on  the  matter. 
These  three  months  without  any  action  looking  toward 
the  building  of  a  new  house  would  have  remained  a 
strange  and  unaccountable  phenomenon;  but  that 


Page  eighty-five 


invaluable  journal  kept  by  Mr.  Noble  supplies  the 
explanatory  narrative.  His  record  is  as  follows : 

"January  22.  A  meeting  of  a  few  members  of  the 
Church  and  Congregation  was  hastily  called  together 
this  evening  to  make  arrangements  for  a  meeting  on 
Wednesday  to  see  what  could  be  done  for  the  building 
of  a  new  Church  Edifice.  After  some  consideration  it 
was  determined  to  see  what  could  be  raised  on  the 
spot  and  $5,000.00  was  immediately  subscribed.  A 
committee  was  then  appointed  to  prepare  statements 
to  be  laid  before  a  Public  Meeting  on  Wednesday  next 
at  i  O'clock  in  the  Lecture  Room.  The  spirit  of  the 
meeting  was  most  excellent  and  it  seems  more  and 
more  evident  that  this  apparent  great  calamity  may 
indeed  prove  a  great  blessing.  May  God  so  overrule  it 
in  His  infinite  love !"  » 

"January  24.  The  public  meeting  today  in  the 
Lecture  room  was  not  as  promising  as  we  hoped — 
some  of  the  Brethren  indulging  in  speeches  not  to 
edification.  The  subscription  was  increased  to  $7,500. 
&  a  committee  appointed  to  canvass  each  District  of 
the  town." 

"January  31.  Public  Meeting  in  the  Lecture  room 
in  relation  to  the  Church  Building.  The  subscription 
has  now  reached  $11000.  &  a  Committee  appointed  to 
look  out  for  a  location." 

"February  7.  The  public  meeting  of  the  Congrega- 
tion to  receive  the  Report  of  Committee  on  the  location 
of  Ch.  Edifice  was  held  this  evening  and  was  opened 
with  prayer  by  the  Pastor.  The  Committee  recom- 
mended the  present  site  of  the  Post  Office  as  both 
cheap  and  central.  There  was  no  expressed  opposition 
to  the  Report,  though  it  was  thought  best  to  defer  the 
decision  for  one  week.  A  Committee  was  also  appointed 
to  report  on  the  size  and  general  style  of  the  Ch. 
Edifice." 


Page  eighty-six 


"February  14.  Public  Meeting  of  Congregation  in 
the  Lecture  Room  to  consult  respecting  the  new  church. 
After  some  very  unpleasant  discussion  in  relation  to 
the  location  the  meeting  was  unceremoniously 
adjourned  sine  die,  some  voting  for  the  adjournment 
from  fear  of  prolonging  strife,  &  others  from  fear 
that  the  church  might  not  be  located  in  the  right  place." 

"March  5.  A  church  meeting  this  afternoon  to 
consult  together  and  compare  views  in  relation  to  the 
location  of  the  new  church.  The  spirit  of  the  meeting 
was  excellent  &  will  do  no  little  to  harmonize  the 
Church  ultimately  on  this  subject." 

That  last  sentence  brings  us  to  a  point  on  which  we 
may  profitably  dwell,  and  which  is  my  reason  for 
exhuming  what  the  parish  so  carefully  buried. 

During  the  weeks  following  the  fire,  Mr.  Noble, 
with  Deacon  Smedley  and  others,  was  carrying  forward 
a  work  begun  in  the  early  part  of  the  winter,  visiting 
all  families  in  the  northern  part  of  the  town  and 
holding  meetings  night  by  night  in  the  school  houses, 
counseling,  praying,  exhorting;  laboring  for  the  more 
thorough  consecration  of  confessed  Christians,  the 
recovery  of  those  who  had  fallen  away  from  their 
former  faith  and  professions,  and  for  the  conversion  of 
those  who  had  not  yet  taken  Jesus  Christ  to  be  their 
Lord  and  Saviour. 

At  the  "Monthly  Church  Meeting"  March  21,  "It 
was  suggested  by  a  Brother  that  the  time  had  come  for 
special  exertions  in  the  Central  District."  Though 
the  weather  was  unpropitious,  meetings  were  appointed 
for  every  night  in  the  following  week.  These  meetings 
were  especially  blessed.  The  record  stands :  "Some 
of  the  Chr.  Brethern  are  much  quickened  and  full  of 
joy  and  the  wish  is  that  the  meetings  should  be  con- 
tinued another  week."  The  "Sunday  School  Concert" 


Page  eighty-seven 


in  April,  held  as  usual  on  the  second  Sunday  evening 
of  the  month,  was  crowded  and  a  large  accession  to 
the  school  was  noted  as  having  been  made  during  the 
preceding  month,  and  that  many  of  the  classes  were 
now  composed  almost  entirely  of  young  Christians. 

On  March  25,  the  church  clerk  made  record: 
"This  day  it  was  announced  that  there  would  be  meet- 
ings for  prayer  every  evening  this  week,  there  being 
quite  a  number  of  persons  who  have  expressed  anxiety 
in  relation  to  their  spiritual  condition  and  there  being 
also  other  manifestations  of  the  special  presence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  congregation." 

On  April  5,  Mr.  Noble  made  note  of  "conversions 
taking  place  almost  daily,"  and  on  April  15:  "The 
meetings  have  continued  up  to  the  present  time.  They 
have  been  most  joyful  and  heavenly  gatherings,  and 
there  [are]  now  some  fifty  hopeful  conversions." 

On  the  following  day  the  parish  meeting  was  held 
when,  with  all  concord,  the  parish  apparently  ordered 
the  excision  of  the  record  of  a  less  peaceful  meeting, 
and  agreed  to  the  placing  of  the  new  church  edifice  on 
"the  Post  Office  Lot"  where  we  are  gathered  today. 
Certainly  there  was  in  this  final  concord  one  of  those 
"manifestations  of  the  special  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  congregation"  of  which  the  clerk  made 
record.  The  lesson  is  of  such  worth  that  I  am  sure 
you  will  agree  with  me  that  I  am  justified  in  resur- 
recting a  story  which,  forty  years  ago,  would  have 
brought  a  blush  to  some  cheeks;  but  which,  when 
fully  told,  does  honor  to  the  actors,  and  instructs  us 
that  the  one  healing  for  hurts  and  the  one  sure  bond 
of  concord  for  the  church  and  for  the  community  is 
in  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  deeper 
consecration  of  all  to  God. 


Page  eighty-eight 


y 

-+ 

w 


— 


D 
& 
L> 


The  story  of  the  building  of  the  third  church  cannot 
be  told  at  this  time.  It  was  dedicated  on  September  12, 
1869,  the  Rev.  Mason  Noble,  D.D.,  giving  the  sermon. 
The  lecture  room  was  finished  later  and  was  first  used 
on  January  3,  1870. 

During  the  time  of  the  building  operations,  the 
church  worshipped  in  the  old  lecture  room  on  Park 
street  and  had  as  its  pastor  the  Rev.  E.  P.  Wells,  with 
the  usual  interim  before  and  after  his  service,  Prof. 
John  Bascom,  the  Rev.  Calvin  Durfee,  the  Rev. 
Edward  Griffin,  the  Rev.  Daniel  S.  Rodman  and  others 
filling  the  pulpit  for  longer  or  shorter  periods. 

Late  in  1869,  Prof.  Albert  Hopkins  began  his  last 
term  of  service  as  acting  pastor  of  the  church,  in  which 
he  continued  until  his  death  on  May  24,  1872,  giving 
his  services  without  salary  as  a  help  to  the  congregation 
who  were  burdened  with  the  expense  of  building ;  and 
he  was  at  this  time  ordained  in  response  to  the  request 
of  the  church  that  he  might  be  able  to  administer  the 
sacraments. 

An  account  of  Prof.  Hopkins's  large  and  generous 
service  to  the  church  belongs  to  the  topic,  The  College 
and  the  Church,  and  will  be  given  this  afternoon. 
There  is  however  one  matter  in  this  connection  which 
Dr.  Carter  has  communicated  in  private  conversation, 
and  which  may  be  put  on  record  here,  as  it  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  official  records  of  church  or  parish. 
In  the  steeple  of  the  new  church  (the  records  giving 
the  name  "church"  instead  of  "meeting-house"  to  the 
third  building),  a  bell  was  hung,  inscribed: 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

ALBERT  HOPKINS 

DIED  MAY  24,  1872. 

"He  being  dead  yet  speaketh." — Heb.  11:4. 


Page  eighty-nine 


Unhappily  this  bell,  either  by  defect  of  casting  or 
from  later  injury,  gave  forth  a  woefully  discordant 
voice  that  by  no  means  suggested  the  joy  of  heaven. 
The  infelicity  was  endured  for  some  time,  there  being 
no  funds  available  for  its  alleviation;  but  help  came 
from  Litchfield  County,  Connecticut,  whence  the 
church  had  brought  its  first  two  ministers.  At  the 
suggestion  of  President  Carter  in  1886,  the  Hon. 
Robbins  Battell  of  Norfolk,  Connecticut,  who  was  an 
expert  and  enthusiast  on  the  subject  of  bells,  and  had 
recently  put  a  chime  in  his  own  home  church,  gave  a 
duplicate  set  of  bells  for  the  tower  of  the  Lasell 
Gymnasium.  The  large  bell  not  satisfying  his  expert 
sense,  Mr.  Battell  about  1890  proposed  to  exchange  it 
for  one  of  perfect  tone.  President  Carter  then  sug- 
gested that  the  discarded  bell  should  be  given  to  the 
church  to  take  the  place  of  the  far  inferior  one  then 
hanging  in  the  steeple ;  but  this  suggestion  was  rejected 
by  Mr.  Battell.  If  the  bell  was  not  good  enough  for 
the  gymnasium,  much  less  did  he  feel  that  it  was  good 
enough  for  the  church.  He  proposed  however  that  it 
be  broken  up  and  the  value  of  the  metal  should  be  his 
contribution  toward  the  casting  of  a  new  bell  for  the 
church,  and  this  was  done  with  a  success  that  delights 
our  ears  Sabbath  by  Sabbath,  the  new  bell,  cast  in 
1894,  bearing  on  its  side  the  same  inscription 
as  the  old. 

Mr.  Battell,  a  grandson  of  Ammi  Ruhama  Robbins, 
that  early  trustee  of  Williams  College,  was  a  nephew 
of  Thomas  Robbins  from  whose  diary  I  have  quoted, 
and  so  was  a  nephew  of  Francis  LeBaron  Robbins  and 
a  kinsman  of  Harvey  Loomis,  whose  names  are 
inscribed  on  the  Haystack  monument,  and  was  my  own 
beloved  and  generous  friend  and  parishioner  during  the 
years  above  noted. 


Page  ninety 


On  December  15,  1872,  the  Rev.  Albert  C.  Sewall 
began  his  service  here.  He  was  installed  February  26, 
1873.  His  labors  for  the  church  and  town  were 
unstinted  and  were  abundantly  blessed ;  but  of  him  and 
of  his  successors  in  the  pastorate  it  is  not  for  me  to 
speak  this  morning,  last  night's  meeting  being  given  to 
recollection  of  their  years  in  the  service  and  fellowship 
of  this  church. 

In  this  review  I  have  not  attempted  a  continuous 
and  complete  narrative  of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  of  church  life  now  ended.  I  have  been  excluded 
from  the  use  of  much  interesting  material  by  the 
assignment  of  special  topics  to  other  lips  and  other 
pens.  Sixty  years  of  the  history  have  been  left  almost 
entirely  for  Dr.  Carter  to  review.  Miss  Grace  Perry 
has  prepared  a  paper  on  The  Work  of  the  Women  in 
the  Church,  which  will  be  read  and  published  later. 
The  physical  disability  of  the  appointee  has  unfortun- 
ately prevented  the  preparation  of  a  paper  on  the 
history  of  the  Sunday  school.  Many  special  topics 
might  have  been  added  to  these,  all  of  them  full  of 
interest.  I  have  only  tried  to  point  out  some  of  the 
high  places  and  meetings  of  paths  as  we  followed  down 
the  course  of  the  century  and  a  half. 

I  have  no  time  left  in  which  to  speak  of  the 
influences  that  have  gone  out  from  this  church  over 
many  paths.  You  viewed  yesterday  that  long  roll  of 
honor  on  which  stand  inscribed  the  names  of  those 
many  members  and  worshippers  here  who  have  gone 
out  through  the  years  to  carry  the  Gospel  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Over 
three  score  members  of  the  church  have  been  men 
ordained  to  the  Christian  ministry,  including  in  the 
list  the  small  number  whose  ordination  preceded  their 
membership  here.  Children  and  children's  children  of 


Page  ninety-one 


those  who  were  members  and  supporters  of  the  church 
have  filled  and  are  filling  conspicuous  and  honorable 
places  as  teachers,  judges,  statesmen,  publicists  and 
reformers.  One  of  them  who  was  here  yesterday,  a 
worthy  son  of  worthy  sires,  is  the  present  Governor 
of  the  Empire  State,  and  in  the  British  Ministry,  in 
these  distressful  and  perilous  days,  is  found  Winston 
Spencer  Churchill,  a  descendant  from  a  Williamstown 
family.  From  her  vantage  ground  on  the  high  places 
where  the  paths  meet,  the  old  church  has  sent  forth  her 
sons  and  her  daughters  to  extend  her  influence  far 
abroad.  Their  line  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth 
and  their  words  to  the  end  of  the  world,  while  here  at 
home  a  great  company,  that  surrounds  us  today  as 
celestial  witnesses,  fought  the  good  fight  and  finished 
their  course  and  won  the  crown  of  life. 

The  Church  of  Christ  in  Williamstown  has  known 
difficulties,  but  it  has  conquered  them.  It  has  seen 
floodtides  and  ebb ;  and  when  the  ebb  was  lowest  it  did 
not  lose  heart,  but  waited  for  the  turning  of  the  tide. 
And  today,  in  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  houses  that 
have  been  its  home,  it  calls  on  us  by  its  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  bright-starred  history  to  look  forward 
with  hope  and  consecration,  and  to  tread  with  courage, 
uprightness  and  gladness  of  heart  the  new  ways  by 
which  the  Lord  shall  lead  us  as  He  led  the  Fathers 
to  ever  larger  and  more  fruitful  service,  guarding  us 
and  enriching  us  with  His  wisdom  on  the  high  places 
where  the  paths  meet. 


Page  ninety-two 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  RALPH  H.  TIBBALS 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  Ralph  H.  Tibbals: 
In  the  year  1760  there  came  to  this  town  a  man  who 
brought  to  it  enduring  blessings.  Richard  Stratton  at 
that  time  took  up  rights  and  established  a  home  here. 
Richard  Stratton  himself  was  never  a  member  of  this 
church,  though  he  was  one  of  the  committee,  as  you 
heard  this  morning,  who  had  to  do  with  the  building  of 
the  first  meeting-house,  but  he  gave  his  children  to 
the  membership  and  service  of  the  church.  His  son 
Ebenezer  was  a  deacon  in  this  church  from  1784  to 
1814.  Mr.  Stratton  was  so  thoroughly  and  devotedly  a 
Christian  man  that  he  was  known  in  the  early  days  of 
the  town  as  Deacon  Stratton,  before  his  son  bore  that 
honored  title  on  these  hilltops.  Mr.  Stratton  himself 
was  a  Baptist,  the  first  one  on  record  among  the 
residents  of  this  town.  In  the  year  1791  the  town 
refused  to  incorporate  Matthew  Dunning  and  fourteen 
others  into  a  Baptist  society.  In  1792  we  find  that 
that  earlier  action  had  been  in  some  way  disregarded  or 
overcome.  In  that  year  Isaac  Holmes  was  chosen 
"tithing-man  for  the  Baptist  Association  in  this  town," 
so  that  the  Baptist  church  was  organized  some  time 
in  1791  or  1792;  and  we  welcome  to  this  platform  this 
afternoon  the  present  pastor  of  that  church,  the 
Rev.  Ralph  H.  Tibbals. 

The  Rev.  Ralph  H.  Tibbals: 

Mr.  .Chairman,  members  of  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church  of  Williamstown,  and  friends:    I  bring 


Page  ninety-three 


you  hearty  greetings  and  felicitations  on  this  happy 
occasion  from  the  two  hundred  Baptists  of  Williams- 
town.  We  have  a  peculiar  pleasure  in  the  prosperity 
of  this  church  when  we  recall  the  part  taken  by  a 
Baptist  in  its  founding.  This  part  has  already  been 
referred  to  and  I  need  not  dwell  upon  it.  I  might  add, 
however,  a  fact  that  may  have  been  mentioned  this 
morning — I  do  not  know — namely,  that  the  meeting 
which  decided  upon  the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  Whit- 
man Welch,  the  first  pastor  of  this  church,  convened  in 
the  house  of  Richard  Stratton,  and  that  Richard 
Stratton  was  himself  named  a  member  of  the  committee 
to  have  in  charge  that  ordination.  As  Baptists  we 
glory  in  the  record  of  Richard  Stratton;  but  we  glory 
no  less  in  the  record  of  the  Congregational  church 
that  he  did  so  much  to  establish.  We  rejoice  today 
with  you  in  the  completion  of  a  century  and  a  half  of 
that  church's  life — in  the  cheering,  uplifting,  saving  of 
a  multitude  of  lives,  and  the  molding  of  true  Christian 
character  in  those  who  have  come  within  the  reach  of 
its  influence.  We  rejoice  with  you  in  your  beautiful 
house  of  worship,  in  the  sturdy  Christian  character 
that  is  apparent  in  your  membership,  adorned  by  the 
Christian  graces  in  so  abundant  measure.  We  rejoice 
with  you  in  your  wise  leader,  sympathetic  friend,  faith- 
ful preacher  and  Christian  pastor,  whom  to  know  is  to 
revere  and  love.  We  rejoice  with  you  in  your  splendid 
opportunity  to  serve  this  town  and,  through  the  college 
and  those  who  labor  in  it,  to  extend  your  influence 
throughout  the  world,  and  materially  aid  in  establishing 
the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  earth.  We  rejoice 
in  the  great  and  glorious  truths  of  our  common 
Christian  faith,  and  bid  you  a  hearty  God-speed  as 
you  enter  upon  the  work  before  you,  interpreting  these 
truths  to  human  hearts. 


Page  ninety-four 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  JOHN  DUFFIELD 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  John  Duffield: 

The  third  denomination  to  organize  a  church  in  this 
town  was  the  Methodist  Episcopal.  They  first  wor- 
shipped in  the  upper  part  of  the  store,  now  the  Sherman 
building,  built  by  one  John  Wright.  Their  first  church 
building  was  afterward  moved  back  and  became  the 
Waterman  &  Moore  opera  house.  The  building,  if  not 
the  people,  was  given  over  to  dances.  A  later  house 
being  built,  the  congregation  at  first  held  its  evening 
service  in  the  basement.  It  is  recorded  that  one  of 
the  pastors,  objecting  to  this  and  desiring  to  use  the 
upper  room  and  having  his  request  refused  by  the 
officers  of  the  church  who  controlled  the  property, 
took  it  out  in  prayer  when  he  thanked  God  that  they 
had  a  place  in  which  to  worship,  though  it  was  half 
underground.  But  if  the  Methodists  were  ever  half 
buried,  they  are  very  much  alive  and  above  ground 
today  and  are  reaching  toward  the  stars.  It  is  our 
pleasure  to  welcome  the  pastor  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  the  Rev.  John  Duffield. 

The  Rev.  John  Duffield: 

Mr.  President,  friends  of  all  the  churches :  I  am 
glad  to  hear  that  it  is  recognized  outside  the  Methodist 
church  that  we  are  not  dead  yet.  We  sometimes  think 
we  are,  ourselves,  but  it  will  be  an  encouraging  thing 
for  me  if  I  take  back  from  this  meeting  the  fact  that 


Page  ninety-five 


our  good  friends  the  Congregationalists  do  not  think 
that  we  are  dead  or  likely  to  be.  It  is  not  my  purpose  this 
afternoon  to  go  into  the  history  of  Congregationalism, 
that  is,  the  local  history,  nor  the  history  of  my  own 
church,  seeing  that  is  done  so  well,  but  I  might  speak 
in  general  terms  this  afternoon  of  something  that  has 
always  thrilled  me  and  still  does  when  I  read  of  it. 
I  am  glad  to  be  welcomed  here  this  afternoon,  very 
glad;  glad  that  I  am  in  a  Congregational  church,  for 
I  feel  that  I  am  part  Congregationalist ;  by  the  way,  I 
like  the  word  Independent  better;  but  as  I  look  over 
history  I  would  like  to  know  who  it  is  that  cannot  be 
thrilled  and  cannot  have  his  soul  stirred  when  he  reads 
just  for  a  little  while  the  history  of,  say,  Congregation- 
alism from  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  up  to  now. 
I  have  only  to  mention  to  you  here  this  afternoon  the 
word  "Pilgrim"  and  "men  of  the  Mayflower"  to  say 
that  any  church  or  any  organization  that  belongs  to 
such  men  as  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  who  had  the  blood  of 
the  men  of  the  Mayflower  within  them,  whether  they 
be  Congregationalists  or  anything  else,  has  something 
whereof  to  be  proud.  And  there  is  something  about 
the  spirit  of  Congregationalism  that  I  love,  and  that 
is  its  love  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  What  do  we 
owe  to  it?  What  would  the  world  have  been,  what 
would  England  have  been,  what  would  this  country 
have  been,  if  it  had  not  been  for  that  sturdy  spirit  that 
was  always  ready  to  die  rather  than  betray  the  truth. 
And  if  I  understand  Congregationalism  aright,  that  is 
what  it  stands  for  in  church  and  in  state.  And  if  you 
are  proud  of  the  Pilgrims,  you  ought  to  be  proud  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  for  he,  they  say,  was  the  biggest 
Congregationalist  of  them  all,  and  so  what  a  history 
you  have  in  the  past !  And  I  am  proud  to  be  here  to 
share  with  you  in  that  spirit,  long  may  it  last  and  live, 


Page  ninety-six 


the  spirit  which  stands  for  religious  liberty,  the  spirit 
that  stands  for  undying  manhood. 

But  I  am  also  here  in  another  capacity  and  that  is 
as  a  Methodist.  I  remember  that  I  am  a  follower  of 
John  Wesley,  a  scholar  and  religious  statesman,  the 
world  evangelist,  the  man  who  had  a  heart  big  enough 
to  take  the  whole  world  in,  the  man  of  great  toleration, 
who  had  no  place  for  green-eyed  jealousy  in  his  soul, 
but  who,  when  he  met  a  man  who  loved  God  and  was 
following  after  the  truth,  put  out  his  hand  and  said 
to  him:  "Is  your  heart  as  my  heart  and  are  your 
sympathies  as  my  sympathies,  and  if  they  be,  here  is  my 
hand  and  here  is  my  heart,  and  we  will  work  together 
for  the  common  cause."  So  I  should  be  false  to 
Methodism  if  I  were  not  here  this  afternoon  in  that 
great  spirit  of  Methodism  to  welcome  and  to  say  God 
bless  you  and  God  speed  all  those  who  love  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity  and  in  truth. 

And  now  they  say  you  are  celebrating  your  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  life.  Why,  some  people 
would  say  you  are  growing  old,  but  in  my  esti- 
mation there  is  no  such  thing  as  old  age.  Grey 
hairs  are,  like  death,  but  an  incident  in  a  man's  life,  to 
me  pointing  to  something  higher  and  grander  and  richer, 
and  as  the  fathers  of  the  past  had  their  problems 
to  solve  and  solved  them  through  persecution  and  death 
and  tribulation,  so  the  Church  of  God  today  must  take 
its  stand  in  the  center  of  things  and  be  the  greatest 
force  in  the  world  for  the  unfolding  of  those  imperish- 
able truths  that  never  die  and  without  which  no  man 
or  nation  can  ever  expect  to  succeed.  There  are 
problems  today,  great,  deep,  solemn,  inspiring,  that 
nobody  else  can  solve  but  the  Church  of  God,  problems 
that  are  social  and  intellectual,  spiritual  and  moral. 
And  now  what  shall  be  your  future,  for  the  future  is 


Page  ninety-seven 


before  you  and  us.  I  pray  that  that  spirit  of  the 
fathers — and  I  love  the  fathers  for  their  sturdiness 
and  for  their  greatness  of  soul — I  pray  that  that  spirit 
of  the  fathers  may  rest  upon  this  church  and  upon 
all  the  churches  of  God  in  the  great  work  that  lies 
before  them  in  solving  the  problems  that  lie  at  their 
feet;  and  may  success  attend  your  efforts  and  may 
you  be  crowned  with  the  blessing  of  God. 


Page  ninety-eight 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 
REV.  J.  FRANKLIN  CARTER 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  the  Rev.  J.  Franklin  Carter: 

Certain  processes  of  history  have  a  way  of  ever 
and  again  repeating  themselves.  Beyond  all  question 
and  of  necessity,  the  earliest  forms  of  Christian  worship 
were  exceedingly  simple,  beginning  with  household 
gatherings  and  informal  services.  Just  how  early 
Diocesan  Episcopacy  entered  in  as  a  controlling  and 
guiding  influence  in  the  Christian  church  is  a  subject 
still  of  somewhat  heated  debate.  But,  taking  over  the 
direction  of  Christian  worship,  it  did  beautify  it  and 
enlarge  its  scope  in  many  ways.  In  the  year  1870, 
the  Congregational  church  in  Williamstown,  which  had 
been  perpetuating  that  primitive  form  of  organization 
and  worship,  got  through  with  its  old  lecture-room  on 
Park  street  and  the  building  was  taken  over  by  the 
Episcopalians  so  that  in  its  place  might  be  put,  in  the 
course  of  time,  a  worthy  and  beautiful  structure  that 
adorns  the  town  today ;  and  the  community  at  last  has 
that  church  on  Park  street  that  many  of  the  fathers 
desired,  as  was  narrated  this  morning.  It  is  a  pleasure 
to  welcome  to  our  gathering  this  afternoon  the  Rector 
of  St.  John's  Church,  the  heir  of  Congregationalism 
and  an  ornament  of  the  Episcopal  church,  the  Rev. 
John  Franklin  Carter. 


Page  ninety-nine 


The  Rev.  J.  Franklin  Carter: 

Mr.  DePeu  and  brethren:  I  stand  here  as  repre- 
senting a  rather  young  stripling  of  a  parish  of  an 
ancient  church,  to  bring  my  greetings  to  you  on  this 
one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  this  ancient 
parish.  Although  we  are  still  young,  we  have,  as 
Mr.  DePeu  has  just  told  you,  kicked  over  the  cradle, 
which  was  the  old  Congregational  lecture-room,  and 
built  ourselves  a  more  worthy  mansion. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  conditions  among  the  various 
churches  and  Christians  of  different  names  resembled 
nothing  so  much  as  the  international  condition  of 
Europe  today.  There  were  some  alliances,  but  every 
church  was  a  separate  and  independent  state ;  and,  for 
the  most  part,  they  were  all  exceedingly  jealous  of  their 
own  rights  and  privileges ;  they  were  not  at  all  averse 
to  plotting  against  their  neighbors,  and  in  many  cases 
they  sought  to  undermine  the  influence  of  other 
Christian  bodies.  I  confess  that  if  that  same  spirit 
were  abroad  today  I  should  not  feel  very  much  like 
appearing  here  to  congratulate  the  First  Congregational 
Church  upon  its  long  and  honorable  history,  upon  its 
present  prosperity,  and  upon  its  bright  prospects  for 
the  future.  But  whatever  else  the  movement  towards 
Christian  unity  may  have  accomplished  or  may  yet 
accomplish,  it  has  at  least  done  this,  it  has  brought  us 
near  enough  together  to  see  that  such  rivalry  has 
exhausted  itself.  It  is  a  thing  which  is  not  Christian ; 
and  we  recognize  that  members  of  the  Christian 
churches  have  no  business  to  fight  one  another  for 
their  Christian  heritage.  I  suppose  we  are  all  believers 
in  nationality;  that  we  all  believe  that  the  nations  of 
the  world  have  not  only  their  right  to  existence,  but 
that  they  each  contribute  something  worthy  to  enrich 


Page  one  hundred 


and  enlarge  the  life  and  increase  the  satisfaction  of 
mankind.  And,  in  like  manner,  I  take  it  that  we  can 
heartily  rejoice  in  the  same  principle  among  the 
Christian  churches,  that  each  one  has  its  part  to 
contribute  and  that  the  prosperity  of  one  is  not  some- 
thing attained  at  the  expense  of  another;  but  as  one 
prospers  the  others  prosper,  that  they  are  not  rival 
organizations,  but  rather  that  they  are  all  functions  of 
the  one  body.  And  it  is  in  that  spirit  that  I  am  glad  to 
stand  here  today;  it  is  because  of  this  that  I  rejoice 
with  you  in  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  your 
great  and  honorable  history,  that  I  rejoice  and  thrill 
at  the  long  line  of  noble  men  who  have  gone  out  from 
this  church  to  bear  the  Christian  message  to  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth  and  that  I  can  today  wish  you 
God-speed  as  you  are  now  beginning  another  century 
and  a  half  of  your  life.  I  stand  here  on  behalf  of  my 
people  and  wish  you  prosperity  and  the  best  blessings 
of  God  that  you  may  work  out  in  His  name  and  for 
the  sake  of  this  town  and  commonwealth  and  nation 
your  contribution  toward  the  upbuilding  of  a  nobler 
civilization  and  a  nobler,  richer,  fuller  Christianity  in 
the  years  that  are  to  come.  God  bless  the  First 
Congregational  Church  of  Williamstown. 


Page  one  hundred  one 


ADDRESS  OF 
PRESIDENT  HARRY  A.  GARFIELD 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  President  Harry  A.  Gar  field: 

There  are  six  Protestant  churches  in  Williamstown, 
and  two  of  the  Roman  Catholic  order.  There  is  only 
one  college,  and  what  the  churches  and  the  town  itself 
would  be  without  that  college,  it  is  impossible  for  man 
to  say  and  difficult  for  one  in  any  wise  to  imagine. 
The  debt  that  this  church  and  all  the  churches,  and 
the  town  itself,  owe  to  the  college  is  beyond  our 
measurement.  Planted  as  this  church  is  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  college  grounds,  it  is  a  joy  to  us  to  know 
that  we  still  have  a  place  in  the  heart  of  the  college 
itself  and  to  welcome  to  our  gathering  this  afternoon 
the  president  of  the  college,  who  will  now  speak  to  us. 

President  Harry  A.  Gar  field: 

The  Congregational  Church  of  Williamstown  is  in 
a  very  real  sense  the  spiritual  mother  of  the  college. 
The  church  had  labored  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  in  the  community  before  the  life  of  the  college 
had  fairly  begun,  and  in  the  early  days  your  pastors 
were  our  presidents  and  professors.  Your  church  was 
also  our  church.  Since  the  founding  of  the  college, 
many  of  its  members  have  been  associated  with  you. 
Here  were  trained  in  Christian  fellowship  some  of  the 
noblest  characters  of  the  college  community ;  here  many 


Page  one  hundred  two 


of  the  children  of  members  of  the  faculty  were 
baptized,  and  here  was  extended  to  them  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship  when  they  became  members  and  took 
their  places  with  the  elders  of  the  community.  There- 
fore, it  is  with  peculiar  pleasure  that  I  bring  you 
greetings  from  the  college  and  wish  you  prosperity. 
It  is  dutiful  as  well  as  a  pleasure  to  bring  you  greeting. 
We  owe  you  more  than  we  can  repay.  We  remember 
the  things  of  the  past,  sanctified  by  our  relation  to  you, 
and  look  hopefully  to  the  future.  We  wish  to  retain 
your  affectionate  regard  and  to  cooperate  with  you 
in  the  Christian  work  of  our  community.  You  will 
hear  from  other  lips,  from  one  whose  long  association 
with  both  institutions  fits  him  in  a  peculiar  way  to 
address  you  on  this  occasion,  the  history  of  the  relation 
between  the  college  and  the  church  that  has  marked 
the  passage  of  the  years.  But,  looking  to  the  future 
and  speaking  for  the  present  generation  of  students, 
as  well  as  for  the  faculty  of  the  college,  I  wish  to  voice 
the  earnest  hope  that  the  relations  which  have  existed 
in  the  past  may  be  continued,  though  in  different  form. 
Some  of  us  are  members  of  your  body,  though  we  are 
necessarily,  during  the  college  year,  occupied  with  the 
affairs  of  the  College  Church.  We  hope  that  this 
relation  will  be  maintained  and  strengthened  by  further 
accessions  as  the  years  advance. 

Williamstown  has  impressed  many  persons  as  a 
place  in  which  the  people  serve  God,  attending 
worshipfully  the  churches.  It  is  a  church-going 
community.  There  are  too  few  of  them  in  our  country 
today,  and  this  church  with  the  others  here  represented, 
has  set  before  the  young  men  of  the  college  an  example 
of  high  mindedness,  of  single-hearted  devotion  to  the 
things  of  religion,  that  is  essential  if  the  things  of  the 
mind  are  to  be  of  highest  service.  I  am  glad  to  have 


Page  one  hundred  three 


this  opportunity  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the 
influence  exerted  by  the  churches  of  Williamstown.  It 
extends  to  the  college,  and  furnishes  an  example  of 
community  life  which  our  students  will  do  well  to 
imitate,  an  example  which  we  of  the  College  Church 
highly  appreciate,  for  it  aids  us  in  the  efforts  we  are 
putting  forth. 


Page  one  hundred  four 


DR.  FRANKLIN  CARTER 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  FRANKLIN  CARTER 


The  Rev.  John  DePeu, 

introducing  Drt.  Franklin  Carter: 
The  last  address  of  this  afternoon  has  for  its 
subject:  The  College  and  the  Church.  We  are 
singularly  favored  in  that  the  subject  will  be  presented 
by  Dr.  Carter,  who,  as  president  of  the  college  from 
1881  to  1901,  a  member  of  this  church  through  the 
subsequent  years,  its  benefactor  before  he  was  a 
member,  and  a  deacon  since  1910,  is  qualified  to  speak 
of  college  and  church  and  of  their  mutual  relations 
with  thoroughness  of  knowledge,  depth  of  feeling  and 
grace  of  utterance. 

Dr.  Franklin  Carter: 

The  relation  between  the  original  church  of  New 
England  and  the  colleges  was  very  intimate.  The 
colleges  were  really  the  creation  of  that  church.  The 
learned  men,  largely  divines,  and  trained  at  Emmanuel 
College,  Cambridge,  who  came  into  the  Bay  Colony 
in  its  earliest  years,  were  deeply  concerned  that  an 
educated  ministry  should  guide  and  inspire  the  churches 
arising  in  the  new  settlements.  When  other  denomina- 
tions gained  power  sufficient  to  establish  colleges,  these 
were  all  of  them,  practically,  religious  institutions,  all 
designed  to  strengthen  the  influence  of  that  branch  of 
the  Christian  Church  which  they  represented. 

In  probably  every  instance  up  to  the  middle  of  the 
last  century  in  New  England,  a  clergyman  was  put  at 
the  head  and  the  boards  of  trustees  were  largely 


Page  one  hundred  five 


composed  of  clergymen.  There  is  something  really 
inspiring  in  the  loyalty  to  Christ  as  revealing  God  in 
this  early  constitution  and  development  of  the  New 
England  college.  There  were  very  dark  days  for  the 
cause  of  Christianity  in  New  England  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century  and  there  was  then  much 
infidelity  rife  in  the  colleges,  but  the  close  connection 
between  the  very  organization  of  these  colleges  and 
the  church  was  an  anchor  that  held  to  faith  and  was 
certain  to  restore  in  time  a  general  loyalty  to  the  divine 
Lord.  As  the  nineteenth  century  opened  there  was  a 
great  revival  of  true  religion  and  for  the  first  half  of 
that  century  the  colleges  paid  lofty  tribute  to  their 
origin.  God  as  the  supreme  authority  of  the  spiritual 
and  as  the  informing  thought  of  the  intellectual  in 
man  was  the  guiding  power  of  the  instruction.  Young 
men  were  taught  by  the  life  and  example  as  well  as  by 
the  words  of  their  teachers  the  supreme  value  of 
godliness.  There  may  have  been  more  turbulence  in 
those  early  days  on  the  part  of  students  than  now,  but 
I  believe  it  is  true  that  there  was  a  far  more  open 
expression  of  loyalty  to  Christ.  Williams  College 
shared  in  the  general  movement  of  the  period.  Her 
board  of  trustees  was  less  distinctively  ecclesiastical 
than  that  of  Yale,  for  instance,  but  her  early  develop- 
ment was  peculiarly  marked  by  large  and  lofty 
conceptions  and  a  noble  expression  of  the  Christian 
life.  We  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  all  the  directing 
forces  at  her  disposition  for  more  than  fifty  years  were 
vigorously  active  in  the  promotion  of  the  prosperity 
of  this  beloved  church.  Of  these  relations  and  the 
men  prominent  in  them,  I  am  about  to  speak,  but  I 
wish  first  to  say  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the 
beginnings  of  this  church,  whose  origin  preceded  the 
opening  of  the  college  by  only  twenty-eight  years. 


Page  one  hundred  six 


There  had  been  no  church  organization  in  this 
township  before  the  call  extended  to  the  Rev.  Whitman 
Welch,  in  1765.  The  church  when  organized  must  have 
been  small.  In  1768  the  legal  church  members,  voters 
by  law,  were  only  twenty.  But  however  few  the 
members  were  at  the  beginning,  the  church  was  the 
creation  of  the  proprietors,  and  was  doubtless  regarded 
by  them  with  great  interest,  if  not  with  a  sense  of 
possession  and  authority.  It  is  certain  that  several  of 
the  proprietors  never  joined  the  church,  and  probably 
made  no  profession  of  religious  faith.  That  was  true 
in  other  New  England  communities  where  a  church  was 
organized.  But  the  purpose  with  which  the  first  settlers 
came  to  New  England,  namely,  to  secure  and  maintain 
religious  worship  according  to  their  own  views, 
and  the  deep  conviction  that  religion  was  a  large  part 
of  the  business  of  life,  remained  potent  in  the  minds 
of  their  descendants  for  many  generations.  Even  some 
who  did  not  claim  to  be  Christians  had  a  strong  belief 
that  every  township,  if  it  was  to  prosper,  must  establish 
and  honor  the  public  worship  of  God,  according  to  the 
manner  of  the  fathers.  Or,  as  they  might  have  put  it, 
"Except  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor  in  vain 
that  build  it." 

The  settlers  here  contending  with  the  primitive 
forces  of  nature,  making  roads,  clearing  land,  ploughing 
and  reaping,  building,  fighting  the  late  and  early  frosts, 
combating  the  fierce  winds  and  cold  of  winter,  were 
much  absorbed  in  securing  even  a  small  degree  of 
comfort  for  their  families.  They  knew  little,  and 
cared  less,  for  what  was  going  on  in  other  countries  in 
1765 — of  Clive  reorganizing  Indian  Government,  of 
Louis  XV  doing  his  little  best  to  destroy  Parliamentary 
influence  in  France,  of  the  autocratic  George  III, 
grasping  at  absolute  power — but  some  of  them  did 


Page  one  hundred  seven 


think  of  the  authority  of  God,  and  of  His  relations  to 
their  lives,  and  were  resolved  to  set  up  His  worship 
here,  though  they  were  slow  in  accomplishing  it.  One 
event  in  the  year  1765,  occurring  in  England,  namely, 
the  imposition  of  the  Stamp  Act,  they  did  know,  and 
bitterly  resented.  That  act  united  all  America  in 
opposition  to  Great  Britain.  In  October  of  that  year 
a  congress  of  delegates  was  summoned  from  all  the 
colonies  to  meet  in  New  York  City  to  deny  the  right 
of  the  British  Parliament  to  meddle  with  internal 
taxation,  and  to  demand  the  repeal  of  that  hated  act. 
A  town  incorporated  that  year,  in  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts,  could  not  fail  to  be  thoroughly 
imbued  with  patriotism.  So  it  is  no  surprise  to  learn 
that  one  hundred  and  sixty  men  from  this  township 
fought  at  Bennington  for  the  liberty  of  their  country 
August  1 6,  1777,  and  that  the  women  of  the  town 
prayed  in  the  old  log  school  house  for  victory  during 
that  afternoon  until  the  sun  went  down. 

The  first  minister  was  evidently  an  ardent  patriot. 
When  some  of  his  parishioners  were  enrolled  in  a 
company  of  minute  men,  and  ordered  to  report  at 
Cambridge  in  1775,  where  Washington  was  in  com- 
mand, he  went  down  to  visit  them.  When  some  of  them 
were  later  drafted  to  march  under  Arnold  in  the  attempt 
on  Quebec,  Welch  went  with  them,  but  had  no  official 
position.  It  seems  strange  that  the  young  pastor  should 
leave  the  families  of  his  flock  and  follow  the  few 
soldiers  who  were  drafted,  through  the  wilderness, 
without  any  official  relation  to  them.  Some  of  them, 
doubtless,  were  very  dear  to  him,  but  one  suspects  that 
some  left  at  home  were  less  friendly,  had  perhaps  been 
offended  by  words  of  the  patriotic  minister  suggesting  a 
lack  of  patriotism  on  their  part,  and  that  the  situation 
had  become  a  bit  tense.  At  all  events,  that  move  ended 


Page  one  hundred  eight 


his  connection  with  the  infant  church,  for  soon  after 
the  disastrous  repulse  of  the  attack  on  the  city  he 
was  taken  ill  with  the  smallpox,  and  died  not  far  from 
Quebec  in  March,  1776.  The  first  church  building  was 
erected  in  1768,  three  years  after  Mr.  Welch's  settle- 
ment. During  these  three  years  he  had  preached  in 
the  school  house,  located  just  back  of  the  present 
Grey  lock  Hotel,  but  from  1768  the  people  worshipped 
in  the  first  building  consecrated  to  the  worship  of  God. 
One  wonders  if  the  seating  of  the  proprietors,  which 
would  have  to  be  according  to  social  standing,  was  not 
the  source  of  some  heartburnings,  and  if  there  was  not 
some  bitterness  lasting  from  that  source,  even  when 
the  pastor  marched  to  Quebec.  It  is  worth  remarking 
here  that  probably  the  last  church  in  New  England  to 
abandon  this  unrepublican  distinction  of  seating 
according  to  social  respectability,  was  in  the  parish  in 
Norfolk,  Connecticut,  over  which  our  present  pastor 
was  formerly  settled. 

It  was  in  the  pastorate  of  the  second  pastor,  the 
Rev.  Seth  Swift,  lasting  from  1779  to  1807,  that  the 
college  became  a  factor  in  the  community.  In  1793, 
the  first  year  of  Washington's  second  administration, 
a  year  of  great  terror  in  the  French  Revolution,  the 
year  when  war  was  anew  declared  between  Great 
Britain  and  France,  the  year  which  may  be  said  to  mark 
the  rise  of  Napoleon's  military  genius,  the  college  was 
founded.  The  Rev.  Seth  Swift  had  been  pastor  already 
fourteen  years,  and  the  incorporation  of  the  college 
marked  the  middle  point  of  his  pastorate  of  twenty- 
eight  years.  He  was  one  of  the  three  clergymen  on 
the  original  board  of  twelve  trustees,  and  had  been  also 
a  trustee  in  the  free  school  founded  by  Colonel 
Williams.  It  was  in  1792,  a  few  months  after  the 
acceptance  of  the  principalship  of  the  school,  that  the 


Page  one  hundred  nine 


Rev.  Ebenezer  Fitch  and  his  wife  became  members  of 
this  church.  The  college  worshipped  with  the  church, 
but  as  the  entire  number  of  graduates  the  first  four 
years  after  the  college  was  opened  was  only  twenty,  the 
increase  in  the  congregation  from  the  opening  of  the 
college  the  first  years  cannot  have  been  large.  The 
pastorate  of  Mr.  Swift  is  an  interesting  record.  The 
second  house  of  worship  was  completed  in  1798. 
There  was  much  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  earliest 
students  that  the  first  church  building,  which  was 
already  small  for  its  Sunday  audiences,  was  not  a 
suitable  edifice  for  the  commencement  exercises,  and 
this  feeling  hastened  the  construction  of  the  second 
house  of  worship,  which  was  accomplished  five  years 
after  the  opening  of  the  college,  largely  by  the  assist- 
ance of  President  Fitch.  Careful  study  of  the  growth 
of  the  church  during  Mr.  Swift's  pastorate  produces 
the  conviction  that  he  was  well  adapted  to  preside  over 
this  church  during  the  first  years  of  the  college.  The 
spiritual  awakening  that  swept  through  New  England 
from  1797  to  1801  does  not  seem  to  have  touched  this 
church,  but  in  1805  and  1806  there  was  a  revival  here 
that  was  not  without  profound  significance  for  the 
missionary  movement  commemorated  by  yonder 
Haystack  monument.  Recalling  that  1805  was  the 
twenty-sixth  year  of  Mr.  Swift's  pastorate,  we  cannot 
fail  to  believe  that  his  influence  had  been  beneficent, 
and  that  he  had  the  warm  love  of  a  devoted  people. 
During  that  revival  two  of  the  men  whose  names  are 
inscribed  on  the  monument,  Francis  LeBaron  Robbins 
and  By  ram  Green,  united  with  this  church.  In  1806 
Gordon  Hall,  the  first  and  one  of  the  noblest  of  the 
Williams  missionaries  to  reach  a  foreign  field,  was 
here  converted,  and  made  a  public  profession  of  his 
faith  in  Christ  in  that  meeting  house  standing  in 


Page  one  hundred  ten 


dignity  on  the  green  at  the  head  of  our  main  street. 
In  that  church  for  almost  seventy  years  the  commence- 
ments of  the  college  were  held.  It  was  there  that 
Gordon  Hall  in  1808,  Samuel  J.  Mills  and  James 
Richards  in  1809,  received  their  diplomas,  and  there 
that  subsequent  classes,  until  1866,  in  whose  lists  were 
many  destined  to  distinction,  were  pronounced  by 
Presidents  Fitch,  Moore,  Griffin  and  Hopkins, 
Bachelors  of  Arts. 

It  is  impossible  to  recall  the  names  of  Hall  and 
Mills  and  Richards  without  a  deep  touch  of  awe  and 
reverence  stirring  the  soul.  That  group  of  young  men, 
worshipping  in  this  church,  discharging  the  daily  duties 
of  college  routine,  one  or  two  of  them  struggling  to 
pay  the  expenses  of  an  education  (very  small  in  those 
days),  outwardly  not  much  different  from  their 
comrades,  carried  in  their  souls  a  glow  of  love  for 
Christ  and  for  humanity  that  was  destined  to  envelop 
•the  habitable  globe.  There  had  been  American  mission- 
aries before  they  were  born.  John  Eliot  in  the  previous 
century,  and  David  Brainerd,  early  in  the  same  century, 
and  others,  had  preceded  them.  David  Brainerd's 
Journal,  published  by  Jonathan  Edwards,  was  doubtless 
known  and  read  by  the  Williams  group.  That  book 
inspired  Carey,  the  cobbler,  the  pioneer  English 
missionary  to  India,  the  masterly  translator  of  God's 
word  into  several  Indian  languages.  That  book 
quickened  the  soul  of  the  brilliant  Henry  Marty n.  It 
promoted  the  decision  of  the  intrepid  David  Livingston 
to  be  a  missionary,  and  doubtless  fired  the  hearts  of  the 
young  men  who  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  living 
on  this  soil  and  worshipping  in  this  church,  deeply  felt 
that  when  Christ's  arms  were  stretched  out  upon  the 
cross,  they  were  stretched  out  to  embrace  the  world. 


Page  one  hundred  eleven 


Nor  can  I  omit  to  allude  to  the  illustration  here 
given  of  the  great  power  often  exerted  by  young  men. 
Down  by  that  haystack  they  were,  in  a  sense,  a  group 
of  boys,  with  the  splendid  enthusiasm  of  youth,  and 
few  of  them  lived  to  a  mature  age.  Think  of  it. 
David  Brainerd,  whom  I  love  to  associate  with  them 
(he  worked  for  Indians  near  Stockbridge  for  a  while), 
died  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  having  enjoyed  only 
four  years  of  active  labor.  Mills  died  at  the  age  of 
thirty-five,  Richards  at  thirty-eight,  and  Hall  at  forty- 
two.  Short  but  glorious  were  their  careers.  It  was 
for  eternity  that  they  lived.  In  the  prayer  meetings  of 
this  church  their  young  voices  prayed  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  world.  The  prayer  meetings  held  for  some 
time  in  the  maple  grove  near  where  the  monument 
stands,  and  under  the  willows  south  of  West  College, 
were  later  transferred  to  the  houses  of  members  of 
this  church.  Neither  these  young  men,  nor  those  who 
daily  met  them,  had  the  vision  of  their  future  influence. 
They  were  not  the  first  to  conceive  of  the  honor  of 
missionary  service,  or  to  do  missionary  work  in  this 
country,  but  the  consecration  of  personal  service  to  the 
foreign  field  derived  its  inspiration  in  this  country  from 
them.  Every  foreign  missionary  society  in  the  United 
States  may  regard  them  as  its  founders.  They  were 
not  all  members  of  this  church.  Mills  joined  the  church 
of  his  father  in  Torringford,  Connecticut,  in  June  the 
year  he  entered  college,  1806.  It  was  in  April  of  that 
year  that  his  name  was  enrolled  in  the  college,  and  it 
makes  plain  what  a  power  for  good  he  at  once  became 
that  the  immortal  prayer  meeting  was  held  before  the 
thunder  showers  of  that  summer  had  ceased  to  occur. 
Richards,  the  only  one  of  the  names  honored  on  that 
shaft  to  enter  a  foreign  field,  joined  the  church  in 
Plainfield  the  year  before  he  entered  college.  But  all 


Page  one  hundred  twelve 


u 


of  these  young  men  of  large  vision  drew  spiritual  power 
from  and  imparted  spiritual  power  to  the  members  of 
this  church.  Who  can  doubt  that  the  pastor  of  this 
church,  the  Rev.  Seth  Swift,  and  the  president  of  this 
college,  the  Rev.  Ebenezer  Fitch,  working  in  Christian 
fellowship,  gained  new  views  of  the  great  meaning  of 
Christ's  redemptive  mission,  as  they  listened  to  the 
prayers  of  those  consecrated  young  men?  God  be 
praised  that  this  church  and  this  college  were  united  in 
that  fellowship! 

Our  church  manual  presents  the  names  of  fifty-four 
who  joined  this  church  in  1806,  and  fifty-two  connect- 
ing themselves  with  it  in  1807.  Few  students'  names 
are  in  the  lists.  Besides  Francis  L.  Robbins,  Byram 
Green  and  Gordon  Hall  there  are  three  others,  and  one 
graduate,  the  son  of  the  pastor.  Of  these,  two — Swift 
and  Robbins — were  later  closely  connected  with 
missionary  work  in  this  country.  Doubtless  then,  as 
now,  most  of  the  Christian  students  preferred  to  be 
connected  with  the  church  of  their  own  parents  in  the 
native  town.  The  years  preceding  the  revival  of  1805, 
1806  and  1807,  were  years  of  indifference  and  even  of 
hostility  to  religion  in  the  college,  and  this  revival  was 
the  answer  to  much  earnest  prayer  which  had  prevailed 
for  more  than  a  year  on  the  part  of  the  townspeople 
and  the  few  professors  of  religion  in  the  college.  And 
here  let  me  mention  the  name,  probably  unknown  until 
this  morning  to  ninety  per  cent,  of  this  congregation, 
of  a  faithful  deacon  in  this  church,  who  had  a  large 
influence,  not  merely  with  the  townspeople,  but  also 
with  the  students,  in  arousing  and  deepening  religious 
interest  in  days  of  indifference  and  even  hostility.  The 
name  is  that  of  Ebenezer  Stratton,  uniting  with  this 
church  in  1780,  chosen  deacon  not  many  years  after, 
the  well-beloved  son  of  Richard  Stratton,  who  was 


Page  one  hundred  thirteen 


one  of  the  three  men  appointed  a  committee  to  build 
the  first  edifice. 

"Only  a  sweet  and  virtuous  soul 
Like  seasoned  timber  never  gives ; 
But,  though  the  whole  world  turn  to  coal, 
Then  chiefly  lives." 

Mr.  Swift,  as  pastor,  had  always  the  faith  that  his 
pastorate  would  not  end  until  there  had  been  an 
impressive  revival  in  the  community.  His  faith  was 
realized  in  this  great  revival  of  1805  and  1806.  Early 
in  the  following  year  he  died.  We  have  this  minute  in 
the  records  of  the  church:  "February  15,  1807,  at 
about  9  o'clock  a.  m.,  Reverend  Seth  Swift,  our  much 
esteemed,  dearly  beloved,  and  very  faithful  and 
laborious  pastor,  died  in  the  midst  of  great  usefulness, 
while  God  was  pouring  out  his  spirit  here  and  giving 
him  many  seals  of  his  ministry." 

It  is  no  small  testimony  to  the  devoted  and  winning 
character  of  the  first  president  of  the  college  that  the 
revival  in  progress  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Swift 
continued  in  vigor  during  the  following  year.  President 
Fitch  was  really  acting  pastor  of  this  church  for  six 
years  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Swift.  He  was  assisted 
in  his  labors  by  officers  of  the  college,  but  there  is  good 
evidence  that  his  ministrations  were  acceptable  to  the 
students  and  townspeople,  though  William  Cullen 
Bryant,  writing  many  years  afterwards,  reports  that  the 
students  preferred  to  listen  to  Professor  Dewey  as  a 
preacher.  In  the  year  1807  five  undergraduates  united 
with  this  church,  three  of  them  seniors  who  had  been 
in  the  college  for  three  years,  and  must  have  thoroughly 
understood  President  Fitch  and  honored  him  highly. 
It  is  a  unique  distinction  that  belongs  to  him,  called  to 
be  the  first  president  of  the  only  college  founded  by 


the  wealth  of  a  patriot  soldier,  and  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  the  country  by  the  death  of  that  soldier, 
presiding  over  the  institution  when  the  great  idea  of 
the  conversion  of  the  world  took  mighty  hold  of  some 
leading  students'  minds  and  kindled  a  fire  on  this 
continent  never  to  be  quenched,  helping  with  tender 
interest  the  pastor  of  this  church  to  guide  and  encour- 
age this  movement,  succeeding  him  as  acting  pastor  in 
the  midst  of  a  vigorous  revival,  and  carrying  on  the 
work  with  power,  though  sorrowing  deeply  at  the 
commencement  of  that  year,  1807,  over  the  death  of 
his  eldest  son.  Let  us  pay  him  the  homage  of  grateful 
hearts  for  his  loving  service  of  twenty-two  years  as 
president  of  the  college,  and  of  six  years  as  really 
acting  pastor  of  this  church.  Nor  must  I  forget  to 
mention  that  during  the  year  1812,  the  last  complete 
year  of  his  service  as  acting  pastor,  forty-seven  persons 
were  admitted  to  this  church,  forty-four  of  them  on 
profession  of  their  faith  in  Christ,  and  among  them 
five  undergradutes  of  the  college.  In  the  revival  of 
1812  the  college  and  the  church  were  closely  united. 
There  was  also  a  revival  in  the  college  in  1815,  and 
Professor  Dewey  records  that  the  first  intimations  of 
seriousness  were  in  connection  with  the  preaching  of 
President  Fitch,  "which  was  just  then  unusually 
stirring."  At  the  coming  commencement  he  was  to 
lay  down  the  burdens  of  the  presidential  office,  and 
doubtless  felt,  as  all  do  in  anticipation  of  an  important 
change,  the  solemnity  of  life. 

In  the  year  1819,  during  the  first  revival  after 
Mr.  Gridley  became  pastor,  one  hundred  and  twelve 
persons  united  with  this  church,  but  I  find  the  names 
of  no  undergraduates  in  the  list.  Three  Williamstown 
boys  were  among  the  number,  who  later  entered  the 
college  and  were  graduated.  That  was  the  second  year 


Page  one  hundred  fifteen 


of  agitation  with  respect  to  the  removal  of  the  college. 
The  first  four  pastors,  Welch,  Swift,  King  and  Gridley, 
were  all  graduates  of  Yale.  King's  pastorate  was 
brief.  To  the  Rev.  Ralph  W.  Gridley,  installed  in 
October,  1816,  all  records  unite  in  ascribing  qualities 
admirably  adapted  for  the  position,  and  great  efficiency 
in  the  work.  He  was  elected  a  trustee  of  the  college 
in  1827  and  held  the  office  until  his  resignation  of  the 
pastorate.  There  were  constant  additions  to  the  church 
during  his  ministry,  and  in  the  year  1826  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  persons  were  added  to  the  roll,  among 
them  eleven  undergraduates,  the  largest  number  of 
students  admitted  in  any  one  year  to  this  fellowship. 
The  name  of  one  man  admitted  to  membership  in 
this  church  in  1817,  the  year  after  Mr.  Gridley  became 
pastor,  should  be  recorded  in  letters  of  light  in  any 
history  of  the  relations  of  the  town  and  college.  Daniel 
Noble  was  the  son  of  David  Noble,  who  was  a  member 
of  this  church  before  Mr.  Swift  was  settled  in  1779, 
and  was  one  of  the  original  twelve  trustees  of  the 
college.  David  Noble  lived  in  the  house  on  the  lower 
end  of  Main  street,  erected  by  Judah  Williams,  in 
recent  years  .owned  and  occupied  by  the  late  John  M. 
Cole.  Daniel  Noble  built  the  house  now  owned  and 
occupied  by  Talcott  M.  Banks,  of  the  class  of  1890. 
Daniel  Noble  was  born  in  his  father's  house  in  1776, 
was  graduated  from  the  college  in  1796  and  was  the 
first  alumnus  to  become  a  trustee  of  the  college.  He 
was  elected  in  1809,  when  living  in  South  Adams,  but 
returned  to  Williamstown  to  reside  in  1811,  and  became 
treasurer  of  the  college  in  1814,  which  office,  with  the 
trusteeship,  he  held  until  his  death  in  1830.  To  him 
more  than  to  any  other  man  is  due  the  praise  of  having 
thwarted  the  mistaken  purpose,  strong  in  the  minds  of 
many,  to  secure  the  removal  of  the  college  to  Northamp- 


Page  one  hundred  sixteen 


ton  for  its  possible  greater  prosperity  and  usefulness. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  legislature  when  this  project 
was  agitated  and  exerted  a  powerful  influence  in  favor 
of  its  retention  in  this  beautiful  valley  where  Colonel 
Williams  intended  to  promote  education.  His  devotion 
to  this  church  is  preserved  by  him  and  his  brother 
Deodatus  in  the  subscription  of  eighty  pounds  for  the 
erection  of  the  second  house  of  worship  in  1798,  a  sum 
equivalent  then  to  two  hundred  sixty-six  dollars  sixty- 
seven  cents  and,  translated  into  modern  values,  to  many 
times  that  amount.  One  of  his  three  daughters  became 
the  wife  of  the  honored  Professor  Porter,  and  after 
the  death  of  Mr.  Porter  was  married  to  Charles 
Stoddard,  of  Boston,  later  a  trustee,  who  gave  gener- 
ously to  the  resources  of  the  college  in  the  days  when 
wealthy  friends  were  few.  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  A. 
Stoddard,  graduated  in  1854,  who  last  evening  delighted 
us  with  his  personal  reminiscences  of  the  town  and 
college,  was  a  grandson  of  Daniel  Noble.  A  sister  of 
Dr.  Stoddard  became  the  wife  of  Samuel  Johnson, 
of  Boston,  who,  during  three  presidencies,  was  always 
ready  to  respond  to  any  appeal  of  the  college  for  aid 
and  sent  his  eldest  son  here  to  be  educated.  Wolcott 
Howe  Johnson,  a  great  grandson  of  David  Noble,  was 
graduated  here  in  1883  and,  dying  in  1912,  left  a 
handsome  legacy  to  his  alma  mater. 

Here,  then,  is  a  record  of  five  distinct  generations, 
beginning  with  David  Noble,  born  in  1744,  of  loyal 
alumni  and  friends  of  this  college  in  whom  have  lived 
precious  influences  from  this  church.  Members  for 
three  generations  of  this  family  are  at  rest  in  our 
western  cemetery.  It  may  well  be  questioned  if  the 
college  and  town,  taken  as  an  entity,  owes  to  any  line 
of  descent  for  long  and  loyal  service  a  greater  debt  of 
gratitude  and  honor. 


Page  one  hundred  seventeen 


There  is  one  other  family  which  has  been  connected 
with  the  college  since  its  earliest  years  worthy  of 
mention  here.  Daniel  Dewey,  a  lawyer,  came  from 
Sheffield  to  reside  in  Williamstown  in  1787.  He  was 
made  treasurer  of  the  college  in  1798  and  trustee  in 
1803.  He  was  appointed  to  a  seat  as  justice  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  in  1814,  but  died  the 
following  year.  His  son,  Charles  Augustus,  graduated 
here  in  1811,  became  a  trustee  in  1824,  which  office  he 
held  until  his  death  in  1866.  He  removed  to  North- 
ampton in  1826  and  was  appointed  justice  in  the 
Supreme  Court  by  Governor  Everett  in  1837.  A  second 
son  of  Daniel,  Daniel  Noble  Dewey  (his  mother  was  a 
daughter  of  David  Noble)  was  a  graduate  of  Yale,  but 
was  elected  trustee  of  Williams  in  1831,  the  year  after 
his  appointment  as  treasurer.  He  became  a  member  of 
this  church  in  1838  and  was  actively  devoted  to  all  its 
interests.  He  was  Judge  of  Probate  for  this  county 
from  1848  until  his  death  in  1859.  His  two  sons  were 
also  graduates  of  Williams. 

Francis  Henshaw  Dewey,  graduated  here  in  1840, 
a  son  of  Charles  A.,  was  born  in  Williamstown,  but 
began  his  professional  career  in  Worcester  and  died 
there  in  1887.  He  was  made  trustee  here  in  1869  and 
appointed  to  a  seat  in  the  Superior  Court  the  same 
year.  His  three  sons  were  graduated  here,  and  two 
of  these  sons  have  each  a  son  who  has  followed  in 
the  ancestral  line  and  holds  a  bachelor's  degree  from 
the  college. 

Although  but  one  of  the  four  distinguished  Deweys 
crowned  with  judicial  honors  was  a  member  of  this 
church,  the  devotion  of  that  one  to  its  interests  justifies 
some  account  of  their  relations  to  this  community. 
Recalling  also  the  fact  that  Daniel,  the  first  Dewey 
connected  with  the  college,  married  a  daughter  of 


Page  one  hundred  eighteen 


David  Noble,  a  member  of  this  church  before  1779,  we 
may  regard  the  five  generations  of  Deweys,  as  well  as 
the  other  descendants  of  David  Noble  previously 
enumerated,  as  related  to  this  church  in  their  common 
ancestor  and  blest  in  that  inheritance. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Dr.  Griffin,  who  became 
president  in  1821,  and  preached  at  first  every  other 
Sunday  in  the  village  church,  impressed  the  students, 
as  he  did  every  popular  audience,  with  the  majesty  of 
God's  government,  the  grandeur  of  the  Christian 
scheme,  and  the  importance  of  personal  consecration, 
and  contributed  greatly  to  the  success  of  Mr.  Gridley's 
pastorate.  It  is  said  that  his  relations  with  the  earnest 
young  pastor  were  not  to  the  end  amicable.  However 
that  may  be,  the  prosperity  of  this  church  reached  its 
highest  point  when  Dr.  Griffin  was  president  and  Mr. 
Gridley  was  the  pastor.  At  least  six  hundred  persons 
were  received  into  this  church  during  that  pastorate  of 
eighteen  years.  Soon  after  the  resignation  of  Mr. 
Gridley  in  1834,  under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Griffin  a 
church  was  formed  in  the  college,  and  after  that  event 
the  relations  of  the  college  presidents  to  this  church 
were  less  intimate.  Not  that  any  of  the  successors  of 
Doctors  Fitch  and  Griffin  have  failed  to  do  much  to 
strengthen  this  church,  but  the  peculiar  services  of 
those  two  first  presidents  have  not  been  repeated.  They 
could  not  be  with  a  separate  church  organization  for 
the  college,  with  the  increasingly  complicated  relations 
of  the  college,  and  the  enlarging  burdens  of  the  presi- 
dential office.  May  I  quote  from  the  valuable  centennial 
discourse  of  Dr.  Mason  Noble  one  sentence:  "Presi- 
dents Fitch  and  Griffin  will  stand  out,  not  only  in  the 
marble  in  the  college  cemetery,  which  appropriately 
records  some  of  their  virtues,  but  in  letters  of  immortal 
beauty  on  the  souls  of  those  connected  with  this  church, 


I 

Page  one  hundred  nineteen 


who  have  gone  forth  to  their  life  work  under  the 
inspiration  which  they  here  received." 

After  the  formation  of  the  college  church,  in  1834, 
the  pastorates  had  less  significance  for  the  college. 
Several  were  very  brief,  that  of  Rev.  Dr.  Alden, 
beginning  in  1834,  lasting  only  two  years,  as  he  was 
elected  professor  of  political  economy  in  the  college  in 
1835.  Rev.  Albert  Smith  was  also  pastor  but  two 
years.  Professor  Hopkins  was  then  acting  pastor  for 
one  year,  followed  by  the  Rev.  Amos  Savage,  whose 
service  covered  three  years.  The  pastorate  of  the 
Rev.  Absalom  Peters,  D.D.,  extended  over  nine  years 
from  1844  and  was  fruitful.  About  one  hundred 
persons  were  added  to  the  membership  during  his 
ministrations.  The  year  after  his  settlement  as  pastor 
he  was  elected  trustee  of  the  college  and  held  that 
office  until  1869  although  he  resigned  his  pastorate  in 
1852.  There  was  nothing  marked  connecting  the 
service  of  the  Rev.  H.  R.  Hoisington,  a  graduate  of 
Williams,  who  was  acting  pastor  for  two  and  one-half 
years,  with  the  interests  of  the  college.  In  the  third 
year  of  his  pastorate,  fifty  persons  united  with  this 
church. 

These  six  pastorates,  with  interims,  covered  a 
period  of  only  twenty-three  years  between  the  resigna- 
tion of  Mr.  Gridley  in  1834  and  the  settlement  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Ballard  in  1857. 

If,  after  the  formation  of  the  college  church,  the 
relations  of  the  pious  students  with  the  spiritual  life  of 
this  church  were  less  constant  (they  still  continued  to 
worship  here  on  Sunday),  and  the  presidents  of  the 
college  were  less  prominent  in  the  direction  of  the 
church,  the  devotion  of  the  professors  of  the  college 
to  the  welfare  of  this  people  lost  none  of  its  sincerity. 
It  is  not  for  any  of  us  to  remember  personally  the 


Page  one  hundred  twenty 


gracious  assistance  rendered  by  Professors  Dewey, 
Kellogg,  and  Porter,  men  whose  memory  was  very 
fragrant  here  fifty  years  ago,  men  who  were  apparently 
always  eager  to  open  a  path  for  any  member  of  this 
church,  or  any  Christian  believer,  into  larger  view  and 
ampler  knowledge  and  usefulness.  Nor  did  they  con- 
fine their  service  to  things  purely  spiritual.  I  well 
remember  the  first  time  I  looked  down  upon  the  main 
village  street  in  the  full  glory  of  spring,  fifty-five  years 
ago,  arriving  in  town  on  horseback,  passing  along  the 
road  beside  the  church  on  the  hill,  that  the  majesty  of 
the  elms,  and  the  simplicity  of  the  street,  struck  me  as 
marvelously  beautiful.  It  was  the  mind,  and  largely 
the  hand,  of  Professor  Kellogg  that  planted  those  elms. 
They  are  dying  now,  but  they  have  added  growing 
charm  to  that  landscape  for  over  one  hundred  years. 
On  the  graves  of  those  three  professors  the  grass  has 
greened  for  scores  of  springs,  and  faded  for  scores  of 
autumns,  but  the  precious  influence  which  they  exerted 
has  been  handed  down,  invisible  and  often  unknown,  to 
us  and  to  thousands  whom  we  have  never  seen. 

Some  later  professors  attained  the  eminence  of 
these  first  three,  and  I  judge  that  Edward  Lasell  was 
fully  worthy  of  their  fellowship.  A  distinguished 
scholar,  Ebenezer  Emmons,  appointed  lecturer  on 
chemistry  in  1828  and  professor  of  natural  history  in 
1833,  was  a  deacon  of  this  church.  In  1829  a  professor 
of  mathematics,  and  in  1830  a  professor  of  moral  and 
intellectual  philosophy,  were  appointed,  whose  relations 
to  the  college  and  this  church  were  to  be  of  incalculable 
value.  The  two  were  brothers.  The  elder  brother 
became  the  unique  president  of  the  college,  his  service 
beginning  in  1836.  The  other  was  a  unique  servant  of 
God  and  this  church,  his  service  here  in  a  formal 
capacity  beginning  in  1838.  The  dates  of  these  appoint- 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-one 


ments  are  not  synchronous,  but  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  president  resigned  his  office  the  same 
year,  1872,  in  which  the  younger  brother  was  carried 
to  his  permanent  rest.  Both  united  with  this  church  in 
1832,  I  suppose  at  the  same  communion.  Both  brothers 
united  with  the  church  organized  in  the  college  at  its 
beginning  in  1834,  taking  letters  from  the  town  church 
and  remained  in  that  membership  until  their  deaths. 
Professor  Albert  Hopkins  was  acting  pastor  of  this 
church  for  one  year,  from  August,  1838,  to  August, 
1839,  and  again  from  January,  1865,  to  October  of 
that  year,  and  again  from  September,  1869,  until  his 
death  in  1872.  During  these  periods  largely  of 
gratuitous  service,  he  carried  on  his  college  work,  and 
during  all  the  intervening  years  was  ever  ready  to  assist 
the  pastor.  I  have  called  him  a  unique  servant  of  God 
and  of  this  church.  But  no  allusion  to  him  would  be 
suitable  that  did  not  also  record  his  services  as  the 
founder  and  father  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the 
White  Oaks  and  as  the  builder  of  that  edifice,  as 
finally  ordained  to  the  Christian  ministry,  partly  at 
least  that  he  might  serve  that  people,  and  as  preaching 
and  toiling  there  from  October  25,  1866,  when  the 
church  was  dedicated,  until  he  was  no  longer  able  to 
leave  his  home.  Some  of  us  remember  him  well,  his 
rather  grave  and  solemn  exterior  in  later  years  hiding 
a  tenderness  and  a  sweetness  that  were  irresistible,  his 
love  for  the  degraded,  his  holy  enthusiasm  for  missions, 
his  wonderful  flashes  of  spiritual  insight,  his  abiding 
sense  of  the  realities  of  the  unseen,  the  overwhelming 
authority  with  which  he  spoke  of  those  realities.  I 
have  never  known  a  person  in  regard  to  whom  I  was 
so  sure  that  his  soul  had  a  transparent  window  that 
opened  into  the  unseen  world.  In  massive  and  sustained 
discourse  he  was  not  equal  to  his  brother,  but  sudden 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-two 


PROFESSOR  ALBERT  HOPKINS 


revelations  from  that  invisible  kingdom  came  to  us 
through  him  at  times  with  tremendous  power.  He  was 
a  marvelous  compound  of  the  scientific  scholar  and  the 
Hebrew  prophet,  in  which  combination  the  Hebrew 
prophet  was  certainly  predominant.  He  was  the  acting 
pastor  of  this  church  when  Lincoln  was  assassinated  on 
April  14,  1865.  The  news  was  brought  to  this  village 
(we  had  no  village  telegraph  in  those  days)  on  the 
morning  of  the  I5th,  and  was  given  out  by  the  stage 
driver  as  he  drove  up  from  the  depot  after  the  arrival 
of  the  morning  train  from  Troy.  It  was  incredible  to 
many  of  us,  but  proved  to  be  true,  and  the  next  day, 
Sunday,  the  i6th,  Professor  Hopkins,  in  that  church 
on  the  hill,  preached  from  the  text,  "The  burden  of 
Dumah.  One  calleth  to  me  out  of  Seir,  Watchman, 
what  of  the  night?  Watchman,  what  of  the  night? 
The  watchman  said,  The  morning  cometh,  and  also  the 
night :  if  ye  will  enquire,  enquire  ye :  turn  ye,  come." 
That  Sunday  fell  in  a  college  vacation,  and  a  large 
audience,  not  merely  the  ordinary  worshippers,  but 
the  families  of  the  college  professors  (the  professors 
were  all  church-goers  in  those  days)  was  present  at 
the  service.  It  was  a  discourse  in  which  those  spiritual 
intuitions,  pregnant  with  mystery,  abounded.  I  cannot 
say  how  deeply  it  impressed  others,  but  to  me  it  was 
one  series  of  voices  from  the  spirit  world.  The  very 
texts  with  which  he  used  to  open  the  noon  prayer 
meeting  in  the  college,  conducted  by  him  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  seemed  as  he  uttered  them  to  take  on 
weight  and  majesty.  In  his  study  many  students,  and 
I  doubt  not  many  other  persons,  natives  of  this  village, 
passed  through  the  door  that  opens  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  The  college,  when  I  first  knew  it,  was  poor  in 
material  resources,  it  lacked  many  cultural  elements 
that  have  since  given  richness  to  its  curriculum  and 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-three 


atmosphere,  but  it  had  in  those  two  brothers  a  precious 
possession  that  never  was  paralleled  in  any  college,  and 
which  probably  neither  this  nor  any  other  college  will 
ever  possess  again.  I  do  not  mean  to  assert  that  there 
have  not  been  other  college  professors  of  as  great 
ability,  and  presidents  of  as  cosmopolitan  reputation,  or 
that  there  have  not  been  college  presidents  and  profes- 
sors who  were  equally  loyal  to  the  Kingdom  of  God,  but 
two  brothers  of  such  peculiar  power,  the  one  quicken- 
ing to  the  most  serious  thought  on  the  problems  of  life 
and  mind,  and  the  other  nursing  into  growth  the 
slightest  germs  of  spiritual  aspiration,  no  other  college, 
so  far  as  I  know,  has  ever  had. 

I  suppose  in  the  later  years  of  his  service  as 
president,  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins  continued  the  practice 
adopted  by  Dr.  Griffin  of  preaching  Sunday  mornings 
to  the  audience  in  the  village  church,  composed  of 
students  and  townspeople,  from  the  beginning  of  his 
presidency  in  1836  until  separate  worship  was 
established  for  the  students  in  the  new  chapel,  in  the 
autumn  of  1859.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  the 
congregation  worshipping  in  the  church  had,  in  those 
3rears,  abundant  opportunity  to  hear  the  noblest 
preaching. 

It  was  during  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Dr.  Ballad, 
the  first  graduate  of  Williams  to  become  a  settled  pastor 
of  this  church,  that  the  college  faculty  and  students 
began  to  worship  by  themselves.  The  change  was,  in 
some  respects,  probably  not  in  all,  a  distinct  loss  to  this 
church. 

As  the  students  occupied  the  side  galleries,  there 
were  possibilities  of  noiseless,  if  not  of  noisy,  demon- 
strations of  appreciation  of  anything  unusual  in  the 
voice,  gestures,  or  words  of  the  preacher  or  in  the 
apparel  and  behaviour  of  the  individual  members  of 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-four 


families  in  the  audience  below,  and  especially  in  the 
attitudes  or  facial  expressions  of  the  sopranists  of  the 
choir,  which  sang  in  the  gallery  at  the  eastern  end  of 
the  church  on  the  same  level  with  the  students.  As  an 
illustration  I  may  relate  that  a  young  lady,  popular 
with  the  students  and  universally  beloved  in  later  life 
by  everyone  who  knew  her,  a  devoted  member  of  this 
church,  appeared  in  the  choir  one  Sunday  morning 
with  a  small  bit  of  black  court  plaster  on  one  side  of 
her  face.  In  the  afternoon  service  a  large  number  of 
young  men  exhibited  a  piece  of  court  plaster  of  the 
same  size  and  the  same  color  upon  the  corresponding 
spot  of  the  same  cheek,  proving  both  the  accurate 
observation  and  the  gallantry  of  her  student  friends. 
I  have  sometimes  thought  that  students  have  their 
strongest  temptations  to  levity  in  the  place  of  worship. 
The  loving  relation  between  the  college  officers  and 
the  church  did  not  terminate  with  that  withdrawal  of 
the  college  from  the  Sunday  services.  I  will  mention 
certain  professors  who  loved  this  church,  and  whose 
names  come  quickly  into  the  minds  of  some  of  us: 
Professors  Griffin,  father  and  son;  Bascom,  Phillips, 
Lincoln,  Perry,  Denison,  and  Woodbridge.  Time  will 
not  permit  of  my  speaking  of  all  those  men  and  their 
devotions  to  the  interests  of  this  church,  but  of  one  or 
two  of  them  I  must  say  a  word.  Dr.  Bascom  honored 
this  church  as  practically  its  acting  pastor  for  five 
months,  from  November  i,  1866,  to  April  I,  1867, 
and  often  preached  in  later  years,  unfolding  subjects 
of  large  interest  with  masterly  analysis,  and  never 
failing  to  leave  a  deep  impression  of  the  supreme 
importance  of  the  things  unseen.  His  love  of  truth  and 
justice  was  a  passion.  His  emphasis  on  the  inexorable 
obligation  resting  on  men  and  government  to  obey  the 
rules  of  truth  and  righteousness  was  always  command- 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-five 


ing.  He  would  say  with  Ruskin,  "Nothing  can  atone 
for  the  want  of  truth,  not  the  most  brilliant  imagina- 
tion, the  most  playful  fancy,  the  most  pure  feeling, 
not  the  most  exalted  conception  nor  the  most  compre- 
hensive grasp  of  intellect  can  make  amends  for  the 
want  of  truth."  And  with  all  this  he  was  one  quickly 
sensitive  to  the  canons  of  beauty  in  nature  and  art, 
and  had  a  large  gift  of  charity.  He  was,  for  many  of 
the  later  years  of  his  life,  after  his  resignation  of  the 
presidency  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  an  inspiring 
force  in  the  weekly  prayer  meetings,  and  attended 
service  here  regularly,  years  after  the  connected 
discourses  of  the  pastor  failed,  by  reason  of  his  deaf- 
ness, to  reach  his  thought. 

Dr.  Luther  D.  Woodbridge,  professor  of  anatomy 
and  physiology  from  1884  to  1899,  and  deacon  in  this 
church  from  1891  to  1895,  was  a  Puritan  of  the 
Puritans.  Amply  endowed  and  thoroughly  educated, 
he  was  inflexibly  loyal  to  his  convictions  and  insisted 
rigidly  on  the  fulfillment  of  every  obligation  not  less 
when  resting  on  himself  than  on  others.  Tenderly  con- 
siderate and  self-sacrificing  in  the  sick-room,  perhaps 
a  little  ready  at  times  to  communicate  the  possibilities 
of  evil,  all  of  which  he  clearly  foresaw,  he  was  always 
earnest  to  do  his  utmost  to  avert  evil  from  the  human 
body  and  from  the  community  and  the  church.  The 
long  service  which  he  and  his  wife  (who  belonged  to 
one  of  the  prominent  and  useful  families  here  fifty 
years  ago)  rendered  not  merely  to  this  church  but  to 
the  church  in  White  Oaks  is  worthy  of  grateful 
remembrance. 

It  was  during  the  service  of  Rev.  Dr.  Noble  as 
acting  pastor,  January  21,  1866,  that  we  saw  from  the 
comely  house  of  worship,  where  this  people  had 
assembled  for  sixty-eight  years,  flames  bursting  forth, 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-six 


which  soon  reduced  it  to  a  pile  of  ashes.  It  was  a 
serious  loss,  and  there  was  great  sorrow  in  the  hearts 
of  many.  The  edifice  had  just  been  painted  and 
repaired,  and  was  a  fine  historical  landmark.  That 
dignified  site  was  then  abandoned,  and  a  more  central 
location  for  a  new  church  selected,  not  without  bitter 
heartburnings  on  the  part  of  some,  but  the  strife  was 
finally  composed  as  you  learned  this  morning.  The 
professors  joined  with  the  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion in  contributing  to  the  construction  of  the  new 
edifice.  That  edifice  in  which  the  pews  saved  from 
the  old  church  were  used  for  the  seating,  though  never 
beautiful,  was  built  by  heroic  sacrifice,  and  became 
dear  to  all.  The  college  treasury  also  advanced  a  goodly 
sum  towards  the  construction  for  the  privilege  of 
continuing  to  hold  graduation  and  other  important 
services  in  the  edifice.  But  when  the  Thompson  Chapel 
and  Grace  Hall  had  been  erected,  and  the  college  had 
no  longer  use  for  our  pews,  the  edifice,  which  was  too 
large  for  our  weekly  congregation,  and  was  depressing 
at  times  by  its  emptiness,  was  transformed  by  the 
generosity  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  Cluett  into  this 
lovely  interior,  and  the  no  less  lovely  exterior,  where 
today  we  celebrate  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  founding  of  this  church. 

The  walls  of  this  edifice,  for  they  are  the  old  walls, 
were  dedicated  to  the  service  of  God  in  September, 
1869,  and  it  is  interesting  to  repeat  that  from  the  date 
of  that  dedication  until  he  passed  away,  Professor 
Albert  Hopkins  was  the  acting  pastor  of  this  church. 
There  have  been  many  impressive  scenes  within  these 
walls  connected  with  the  ongoings  of  the  college  and 
the  church.  Here  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins  preached  the  last 
three  of  his  uplifting  baccalaureates.  Here  Dr.  Chad- 
bourne  was  inaugurated,  and  from  this  house  carried 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-seven 


to  his  final  resting-place.  Here,  when  President 
Garfield  had  been  assassinated,  as  he  was  leaving 
Washington  to  attend  in  this  house  the  inauguration  of 
the  sixth  president  of  the  college,  a  solemn  prayer 
meeting  was  held,  and  earnest  prayer  offered  to  the 
Almighty  for  his  recovery.  Here  the  sixth  and  seventh 
presidents  of  the  college  were  inducted  into  office. 
Here  the  exercises  of  the  centennial  of  the  college  were 
held,  when  the  alumni  returned  in  numbers  and 
distinguished  scholars  from  many  institutions  of  learn- 
ing came  to  pay  honor  to  the  history  and  service  of 
the  college,  many  of  whom  were  crowned  here  with 
the  highest  honors  our  college  could  confer.  Here  for 
thirty-five  years  the  graduating  classes  of  Williams 
College  received  their  diplomas.  Within  these  walls 
the  beloved  pastors  Sewall,  Bassett,  Slade,  Butler, 
Clayton,  Martin  and  DePeu  were  installed,  and  here 
they  have  administered  the  holy  communion.  Here 
many  have  professed  faith  in  Christ,  while  tears  of 
gratitude  have  welled  from  the  eyes  of  those  who  loved 
them.  Here  many  little  children  have  been  baptized 
into  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  From  within  these  walls  the  mortal  remains 
of  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins,  the  prince  of  teachers,  were 
carried  to  the  cemetery,  so  near  the  spot  where  the 
immortal  prayer  meeting  was  held  by  the  early  students 
of  the  college.  But  to  me  the  most  impressive  scene 
ever  witnessed  in  this  house  was  the  long  procession 
of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  persons,  from  the  village, 
from  the  White  Oaks,  from  South  Williamstown,  from 
the  surrounding  hills,  that  passed  up  the  east  aisle  of 
the  church  to  gaze  for  the  last  time  on  the  beloved 
face  of  Albert  Hopkins.  Then  was  exhibited  the 
tremendous  power  of  goodness  over  the  hearts  of  men 
and  women.  Then  we  caught  a  new  vision  of  "the 
glory  that  excelleth." 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-eight 


The  graduates  of  the  college  who  have  served  as 
settled  pastors  of  this  church  are  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ballard, 
from  September,  1857,  to  December,  1864,  who  was 
also  for  one  year  professor  of  rhetoric  in  the  college 
(he  lived  to  be  over  ninety  years  of  age,  and  during  his 
life  the  population  of  this  country  expanded  from  nine 
to  one  hundred  millions),  the  Rev.  A.  C.  Sewall,  from 
December,  1872  to  1886,  and  the  Rev.  Austin  Bassett, 
from  1887  to  1891. 

I  have  spoken  thus  far  of  the  spiritual  influences 
which  the  college  through  its  presidents,  professors  and 
students  contributed  to  the  growth  of  this  church. 
I  must  not  omit  to  record  that  the  members  of  this 
community,  and  especially  of  this  church,  responded 
gratefully  for  these  sympathetic  activities,  and  that 
there  has  been,  especially  during  the  earlier  generations, 
harmony  between  the  community  and  the  college.  There 
was  a  natural  pride  in  the  presence  of  the  college  here, 
and  a  generous  and  general  willingness,  when  the 
agitation  for  its  removal  was  active,  to  contribute  to  its 
resources  and  secure  its  retention  here.  It  is  fitting  that 
one  family,  the  Whitmans,  should  be  expressly 
mentioned  as  having  been  most  ready  to  give  of  its 
possessions  at  all  times,  but  especially  in  dark  days,  for 
the  maintenance  and  upbuilding  of  the  college.  That 
family  were  the  largest  contributors  in  the  crisis  of 
1821  when  the  agitation  for  the  removal  reached  its 
height.  The  women  of  that  family  were  among  the 
most  devoted  members  of  this  church.  Some  of  us 
remember  the  widow  of  Seymour  Whitman,  the  son 
of  one  of  the  two  brothers  so  intimately  connected  with 
everything  good  in  this  community.  We  can  recall  her 
gentle  voice,  her  sweetness,  her  broad  sympathies,  and 
her  faith  in  prayer  to  God.  The  honors  that  have  come 
to  any  of  her  descendants  (and  the  same  may  be  said 


Page  one  hundred  twenty-nine 


of  other  families  once  influential  here,  whose  sons  have 
become  distinguished — I  am  thinking  of  the  Hopkinses, 
the  Griffins  and  the  Perrys),  suggest  the  promise 
contained  in  the  concluding  sentence  of  the  second 
commandment,  "having  mercy  upon  thousands  of 
successive  generations  of  them  that  love  me  and  keep 
my  commandments."  And  now  my  thought  goes  back  to 
two  impressive  figures,  who  represented  for  many  years 
in  this  community  a  high  type  of  American  citizenship. 
Both  were  graduates  and  trustees  of  the  college, 
the  last  trustees  with  one  exception  to  unite  the  church 
and  the  college.  One  was  a  direct  descendant  of  a  fir=t 
settler  in  this  village,  and  the  othej  was  connected  by 
marriage  with  one  of  the  oldest  families.  I  refer  to 
Dr.  Henry  L.  Sabin  and  Honorable  Joseph  White. 
Dr.  Sabin  joined  this  church  in  1828,  was  made  deacon 
in  1834,  and  died  in  1884,  so  that  for  fifty  years  he  was 
a  standard  bearer  among  this  people.1  With  his  genial, 
sympathetic  nature,  with  his  far-reaching  activity  as  a 
beloved  physician,  climbing  these  hills  and  following 
these  streams  to  remote  hamlets,  diffusing  kindness 
and  helpfulness  and  healing  in  the  humblest  homes, 
giving  far  beyond  his  means  to  the  building  of  the 
third  edifice,  and  to  every  benevolent  enterprise,  putting 
his  hand  to  every  good  work,  no  one  that  ever  felt  his 
loving  sympathy  should  fail  to  thank  God  for  his 
devotion  to  this  community,  guided  as  it  was  by  the 
love  of  the  Divine  Christ.  Are  we  not  thankful  that 
his  seed  is  still  with  us?  Mr.  White  came  back  to 
Williamstown,  his  college  home,  to  become  treasurer 
of  the  college  in  1860,  and  at  once  united  with  this 
church  and  was  deacon  here  from  1882  to  1890,  the 
year  of  his  death.  A  dignified,  courteous  gentleman, 
a  large-minded  scholar,  bred  to  the  legal  profession,  an 
honored  servant  of  this  commonwealth  in  the  cause  of 


Page  one  hundred  thirty 


education,  crowned  with  the  highest  honor  by  Yale 
College  in  1868,  holding  all  his  offices  of  trust  in 
subordination  to  the  honor  of  his  Master,  he  moved  in 
and  out  among  us  as  one  that  regarded  citizenship  here 
as  preparation  for  the  higher  citizenship  in  a  city  that 
hath  foundations. 

Mr.  James  White,  graduated  in  1851,  successor  of 
Mr.  Joseph  White  in  the  office  of  college  treasurer  and 
a  trustee,  was  a  devoted  member  of  this  church  from 
1886  until  his  death  in  1895.  Not  less  loyal  has  been 
his  successor,  Mr.  Charles  S.  Cole  (in  this  instance, 
for  good  cause,  I  violate  the  reticence  customary  on 
such  occasions  with  regard  to  the  living),  a  native  of 
this  town,  united  with  the  church  in  1866,  graduated 
from  the  college  in  1870  and  deacon  here  from  1900  to 
1904  and  again  from  1910  to  1914,  whose  absence  from 
this  celebration  by  reason  of  illness  is  deeply  regretted 
by  every  member  of  this  fellowship  and  for  whose 
restoration  to  health  and  usefulness  we  devoutly  pray. 

Nor  in  these  later  days  have  there  failed  to  be 
among  the  most  loyal  members  of  this  church  other 
graduates  of  the  college.  What  the  church  would  be 
today  without  the  loving  support  of  some  whom  you 
honor  it  would  be  difficult  to  conjecture.  Some  of 
these  are  connected  by  ancestral  ties  reaching  far  back 
into  the  past  history  of  the  town.  Some  of  them,  not 
less  devoted,  have  brought  from  other  ancestry,  but 
just  as  truly  of  New  England,  their  energies  and 
consecration  to  the  service  of  this  beloved  church.  The 
public  ministrations,  so  generously  and  so  graciously 
offered  for  more  than  one  hundred  years  by  officers  of 
the  college,  have  largely  ceased.  The  noble  breadth  of 
interest,  characterizing  the  professors  in  every  New 
England  college,  even  half  a  century  ago,  has  given 
place  to  a  specialization,  which  in  Darwin's  case  is 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-one 


said  to  have  produced  an  atrophy  of  the  religious 
instinct,  and  often  tends  to  a  diminution  of  breadth  of 
sympathy,  to  a  more  or  less  marked  degree.  I  suppose 
we  cannot  look  for  a  renewal  of  the  same  tender  ties, 
or  hope  for  the  same  guiding  official  help  in  the  coming 
years,  but  there  are  some  permanent  officers  in  the 
college  whose  sympathy  and  cooperation  are  of  great 
value  to  us  today  and  we  believe  that  these  bonds  of 
affection  will  never  be  wholly  severed. 

Thus  I  have  briefly  sketched  some  salient  features 
in  the  relations  of  the  college  and  the  church.  I  have 
naturally  dwelt  chiefly,  in  characterizing,  on  the 
graduates  of  the  college  who  served  the  church  and  on 
those  who  guided  its  life  when  undergraduates  looked 
to  it  as  the  actual  church  of  the  college.  I  am  well 
aware  of  the  inadequacy  of  my  performance,  but  I 
trust  I  have  made  it  plain  that  the  consecration  of 
learning  and  genius  by  graduates  and  officers  of  the 
college  to  the  honor  of  the  Divine  Christ  in  cooperation 
with  the  members  of  this  beloved  church  has  been  a 
long  and  beautiful  exhibition  of  the  joy  of  Christian 
fellowship  and  the  glory  of  Christian  service. 

We  are  still  a  church  of  Christ,  still,  with  all  our 
infirmities  and  lapses,  a  body  of  believers  in  the  love 
and  the  holiness  of  God,  still  following,  I  trust,  the 
same  Divine  Lord,  still  enduring,  I  hope,  "as  seeing 
Him  who  is  invisible."  We  praise  God  for  the  tender 
relations  that  have  existed  between  the  church  and  the 
college  during  all  these  years,  and  we  pray  that  we 
may  be  more  grateful  for  all  the  blessings  that  He  still 
showers  upon  us,  better  stewards  of  His  manifold 
grace.  And  as  we  recall  the  stately  figures  of  the  past, 
and  note  their  self-sacrificing  love  of  the  Divine  Master, 
and  recount  the  triumphs  of  grace  in  this,  our  history, 
we  seem  to  hear  voices  still  praising  our  Divine  Lord, 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-two 


and  bidding  us  to   regard  them  as  still  loving  and 
blessing  this  ancient  church. 

"Hark,  the  sound  of  holy  voices  chanting  at  the  crystal  sea 
Hallelujah,  hallelujah,  hallelujah,  Lord  to  Thee. 
Multitudes  which  none  can  number,  like  the  stars  in  glory 

stand 

Clothed  in  white  apparel,  holding  palms  of  victory  in  their 
hand. 

i 
"They  have  come   from  tribulation   and  have  washed  their 

robes  in  blood, 
Washed  them  in  the  blood  of  Jesus :  tried  they  were,  and 

firm  they  stood. 
Gladly  Lord  with  Thee  they  suffered,  gladly  Lord  with  Thee 

they  died, 

And  by  death,  to  life  immortal  they  were  born  and  glorified. 

! 

"Now  they   reign  in   Heavenly  glory,   now  they  walk  with 

golden  light, 

Now  they  drink  as  from  a  river  holy  bliss  and  infinite. 
Love  and  peace  they  taste  forever,  and  all  truth  and  knowl- 
edge see 
In  the  beatific  vision  of  the  blessed  Trinity. 

"God  of  God,  the  one  begotten,  Light  of  light,  Emanuel, 
In  whose  Body  joined  together  all  the  saints  forever  dwell, 
Pour  upon  us  all  Thy  fulness,  that  we  may  forevermore 
God  the  Father,   God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost 
adore." 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-three 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  YEARS  OF 

WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE 

FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH 

OF  WILLIAMSTOWN 


The  earliest  record  now  available  of  the  members 
of  this  church  is  that  dated  in  1779,  at  the  time  of  the 
settlement  of  the  Rev.  Seth  Swift.  There  were  then 
sixty-one  members,  of  whom  thirty-six  were  women. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  part  of  the  work 
of  the  organization  these  thirty-six  women  took  upon 
themselves,  but  certain  forms  of  occupation  can  easily 
be  eliminated.  The  little  meeting-house,  forty  feet  by 
thirty,  had  no  carpet  to  be  sewed  or  cleaned.  There 
was  neither  kitchen  nor  parlor  to  tempt  to  suppers  or 
fairs,  and  as  the  ministers  lived  in  their  own  houses, 
there  was  no  parsonage  to  claim  attention.  As  this 
first  meeting-house  was  built  by  the  town  proprietors, 
by  no  means  all  of  whom  were  church  members,  it  is 
probable  that  needed  repairs  were  made  by  the  town, 
and  when  you  have  added  that  there  were  no  mission- 
ary societies  for  which  to  solicit  funds,  you  have 
removed  the  most  common  objects  for  which  the 
women  of  a  church  associate  themselves. 

The  white  meeting-house  which  burned  in  1866  was 
built  in  1798,  and  by  that  time  the  names  of  some 
seventy-five  other  women  were  added  to  the  roll — 
too  many  by  far  to  let  slip  the  conscientious  pleasure  of 
working  under  a  name.  On  May  27,  therefore,  in  the 
year  1812,  they  signed  the  constitution  of  The  Female 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-four 


Charitable  Society.  The  preamble  reads  as  follows: 
"Believing  it  to  be  the  duty  of  everyone  to  assist  in 
the  dissemination  of  religious  truth,  and  wishing  to 
cooperate  in  this  good  and  glorious  work  by  putting 
into  the  hands  of  our  fellow  mortals  the  Words  of 
Eternal  Life,  we  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed 
do  mutually  and  cordially  agree  and  form  ourselves 
into  a  Society:  and  for  the  purpose  of  managing  the 
business  of  the  society  we  do  adopt  the  following 
Articles  for  our  constitution:  "  The  first  object  of  the 
society  was  to  be  "the  free  distribution  of  the  Bible  V* 
and  Testament  and  other  Religious  Books  and  Tracts, 
among  the  poor  and  destitute  families  of  this  town." 
Another  object  was  "to  aid  and  assist  the  poor  and 
indigent  families  of  this  town  in  those  things  that  may 
be  necessary  and  convenient  for  their  nourishment  and 
clothing  of  the  body."  For  this  purpose  a  sack  was  to] 
be  placed  "at  the  house  of  the  president,  in  a  convenient 
place,  for  the  reception  of  any  article  that  the  benevo- 
lent and  charitable  may  be  disposed  to  contribute." 
The  third  object  was  "the  support  of  missionaries  at 
home  or  in  foreign  countries:  and  likewise  to  grant 
pecuniary  assistance  to  the  society  for  translating  the 
Holy  Scriptures  into  foreign  languages."  The  pay- 
ment of  fifty  cents  a  year  entitled  one  to  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  society,  including  the  sermon, 
appropriate  to  the  occasion,  which  was  to  be  preached 
at  every  annual  meeting.  Article  nine  of  the  constitu-y\f 
tion  wisely  stated,  however,  that  if  any  member  should 
see  fit  to  give  more  than  fifty  cents  it  should  be 
thankfully  received  and  faithfully  applied  to  the  objects  / 
specified.  Mrs.  Deoclamus  Skinner  was  the  first 
president  and  Mrs.  Lucy  Whitman  the  first  vice- 
president.  Ninety  women  were  enrolled  in  1812. 
There  were  Nobles,  Sloans,  Strattons  and  Sabins ; 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-five 


Bardwells,  Bulkleys  and  Bridges;  Kelloggs,  Joneses, 
Hubbells  and  Rosseters;  Deweys,  Danforths  and 
Smedleys.  If  ninety  seems  a  large  number,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  there  was  no  other  church  in  the 
township,  even  the  people  of  South  Williamstown 
having  their  membership  here  until  1836. 

The  first  expenditure  was  ninety-two  cents  for  the 
purchase  of  the  two  record  books  which  we  still 
preserve,  and  the  next,  fifteen  dollars  for  Bibles,  one 
dollar  and  a  half  for  fifty  copies  of  Homes'  Sermons, 
and  twenty-five  cents  for  a  box  to  keep  the  Bibles  in. 
The  Bibles  were,  as  we  read  in  the  first  annual  report, 
"all  distributed  by  the  committee  to  such  persons  as 
were  found  to  stand  in  perishing  need  of  such 
charitable  donations  and  who  were  wholly  destitute  of 
that  unspeakably  important  gift  of  God  to  a  fallen 
world."  There  were  also  contributed  that  year  six 
magazines,  four  sermons,  four  tracts  and  one 
Columbian  Orator  from  the  Messrs.  Whitman,  six 
pamphlets,  two  spelling  books,  and  one  primer  from 
Mrs.  Deoclamus  Skinner,  the  president,  eight  volumes  of 
the  Spiritual  Companion  from  Mrs.  Rebecca  Higgins, 
one  dozen  common  primers  and  ten  evangelical  primers 
from  the  widow  Abigail  Noble,  and  from  Mrs.  Maria 
Dewey,  six  spelling  books.  This  report  was  respectfully 
submitted  by  Deodamus  Skinner,  Lucy  Whitman, 
•  Mehitabel  Bardwell,  Lucy  Smedley,  Abby  Wolcott  and 
3olly  Starkweather,  with  the  following  conclusions: 
'Your  committee  feel  it  their  duty  on  this  occasion  to 
leclare  to  the  society  as  the  conviction  of  their  minds 
from  a  view  of  the  whole  subject,  so  far  as  their 
information  and  experience  extend,  that  many  and 
animating  considerations  are  presented  for  a  further 
rigorous  prosecution  of  the  object  of  this  Institution. 
Whatever  feelings  some  people  have  on  this  subject, 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-six 


they  cannot  permit  themselves  to  doubt  but  that  the 
Merciful  Father  of  the  Universe  will  look  with  appro- 
bation upon  the  humble  efforts  of  an  Institution  whose 
object  is  to  feed  the  hungry  and  clothe  the  naked." 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  annual  reports  that  this 
organization  combined  the  work  of  a  Home  and 
Foreign  Missionary  Society,  of  a  Ladies'  Aid  and  a 
Good  Will  Club,  and  for  the  first  twenty  years,  at 
least,  there  could  have  been  no  lack  of  members.  There 
were  added  to  the  church  in  the  years  1819,  1826  and 
1831  more  than  sixty  women  and  girls  each  year,  most 
of  whom  would  probably  have  been  among  the 
contributors.  For  the  first  thirteen  years  the  amount 
given  to  foreign  work  never  fell  below  twenty  dollars 
nor  rose  above  fifty-two,  and  then  it  quite  abruptly 
ceased.  The  collections  for  the  Berkshire  and 
Columbian  Missionary  Society  or  the  American  Home 
Missionary  Society  continued  throughout  the  thirty- 
seven  years,  gradually  decreasing  as  the  number  of 
members  fell  from  one  hundred  and  ten  in  1814  to 
eighteen  in  1849.  Most  of  the  money  came  through 
the  hands  of  collectors,  appointed  each  year  to  canvass 
the  different  parts  of  the  town,  and  many  of  the  half 
dollars  represented  the  butter  and  egg  money  of  the 
farmers'  wives.  A  few  of  the  more  interested  or 
wealthier  members  added  to  their  fee  small  sums  as 
donations.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  how  it  was  possible, 
f  in  a  town  of  this  size,  quite  so  frankly  to  set  apart  a 
portion  of  the  population  as  the  hungry,  the  naked,  and 
the  indigent,  but  from  the  beginning,  a  fair  proportion 
of  all  the  money  was  spent  in  supplying  town  needs.  ^ 
Every  year  something  was  appropriated  for  "schooling 
poor  children  in  different  districts  of  the  town."  Yam 
was  contributed  to  make,  in  different  years,  seventy- 
five,  fifty,  seventy,  fifty-five  yards  of  cloth,  "that  poor 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-seven 


children  might  be  decent  and  comfortable  to  attend  the 
Sunday  School."  In  addition,  in  1848,  sixteen  dollars 
were  appropriated  toward  a  church  carpet.  And  always 
there  were  the  Bibles,  Evangelical  primers,  volumes  of 
the  Panoplist  and  Spiritual  Companion,  to  be  given  out 
from  that  box  which  cost  twenty-five  cents.  Always,  1 
that  is,  until  1827,  when  it  was  voted  "that  the  clause 
in  the  fourth  article  of  the  constitution  which  requires 
the  society  to  keep  Bibles  and  Testaments  for  distribu- 
tion be  erased."  The  society  had  only  one  meeting  a 
year,  but  the  annual  reports  faithfully  set  forth,  with 
absolute  detail,  the  use  made  of  contributed  bedding, 
clothing  and  spelling  books. 

There  is  no  hint  in  these  reports,  which  gradually 
grow  briefer  in  the  early  thirties,  of  a  reason  for  the 
distinct  falling  off  in  membership.  There  were  fifty 
and  forty,  and  then  thirty  and  twenty,  and  when  at 
last,  in  1849,  there  were  but  eighteen,  the  secretary, 
Mrs.  Abby  Benjamin  Sabin,  rather  sorrowfully 
presents  the  following  report :  "At  the  Annual  meeting  \ 
of  the  Female  Charitable  Society,  it  was  the  opinion 
of  the  members  present  and  the  expressed  opinion  of 
those  absent,  that  the  society  had  better  be  disbanded. 
It  had  become  very  much  reduced  in  its  numbers,  and 
in  its  original  object  was  either  unnecessary  or  super- 
seded by  others.  A  feeling  of  sadness  was  experienced 
that  an  organization  that  took  the  precedence  of  all 
others  as  a  benevolent  institution  among  the  Ladies 
of  this  town,  had  been,  as  they  hoped,  extensively 
useful  in  various  ways  in  the  relief  of  human  suffering 
and  the  diffusion  of  truth,  and  embraced  the  names 
of  so  many  worthies  most  of  whom  had  departed  to 
the  spirit  land,  should  become  extinct.  Voted 
unanimously  that  the  Female  Charitable  Society  of 
Williamstown  be  considered  as  no  longer  having  an 
existence." 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-eight 


It  would  have  been  almost  impossible  to  continue 
the  story  from  this  point  to  the  dates  held  in  living 
recollection  if  we  had  not  had  access  to  the  diary  of 
Mrs.  Lucy  Benjamin  Perry,  daughter  of  Mrs.  Ruth 
Seymour  Benjamin,  who,  in  1839,  returned  to  live  for 
nearly  twenty  years  in  Williamstown.  An  almost  daily 
entry  gives  account  of  spring  cleanings  and  the  first 
robins,  of  commencement  festivities,  of  early  frosts, 
of  tea  drinkings  and  of  the  text  of  nearly  every  Sunday 
sermon.  Best  of  all,  for  our  purpose,  she  notes  the 
meetings  of  "Society,"  the  donation  parties  and  the 
maternal  meetings.  Society  is  not  mentioned  till  1847. 
In  1848  it  is  called  sewing  society  and  is  said  to  be 
meeting  for  the  first  time  in  many  months.  In  October 
of  1850  she  again  speaks  of  there  having  been  no 
society  for  many  months  and  of  an  attempt  to  revive 
it.  It  seems  evident  that,  from  about  the  period  when 
the  Charitable  Society  grew  weaker,  meetings  for 
sewing  were  held  from  time  to  time  as  occasion 
demanded.  We  find  from  another  source  that  in  1841, 
when  East  College  burned,  the  women  met  at  Mrs. 
Whitman's  to  make  sheets  and  pillow  cases  for  the 
students  who  had  lost  all  their  possessions.  A  fair 
was  quickly  arranged  for  their  benefit  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Mrs.  Albert  Hopkins,  and  the  upper  part  of  the 
Whitman  store  was  crowded  for  several  afternoons  and 
evenings.  In  1848,  Mrs.  Perry  collected  money  for 
cleaning  the  church — three  or  four  dollars — and  says 
she  had  a  very  pleasant  time  and  that  people  seemed 
glad  to  see  her.  A  little  later  she  helped  "put  down  the 
carpet  to  the  meeting-house."  In  1851  she  says  they 
were  again  very  busy  making  curtains  and  carpets  for 
students,  and  that  they  began  work  in  earnest  for 
Mr.  Marshall  Sanders.  This  last  was  evidently  his 
outfit  for  the  field,  as  he  left  this  church  for  mission- 


Page  one  hundred  thirty-nine 


ary  work  in  Ceylon  in  that  year.  For  the  next  few 
years  the  interest  seems  to  have  increased.  One  very 
cold  day  in  January,  1857,  there  were  twenty  persons 
present  at  a  society  meeting  at  Deacon  Foote's.  A 
week  later  "twenty-four  of  us  came  back  from  society 
,}at  Mr.  George  Smedley's  in  the  omnibus.  We  had  a 
merry  time,  I  assure  you.  The  wind  blew  almost  a 
hurricane  and  it  grew  very  cold,  but  we  did  not  feel  it. 
Got  home  safe  and  comfortable.  Thermometer  went 
_)  \down  to  twenty-five  below."  The  names  of  most  of 
the  young  men  and  women  who  made  up  this  merry 
time  are  given,  and  all  through  that  winter  each  hostess 
must  have  provided  for  thirty  or  more  guests.  The 
work  was  usually  quilting,  followed  by}  the  social 
compensation  of  having  Richard  Hoisington,  John 
Tatlock,  Daniel  Dewey,  John  Whitman  and  others 
come  in  to  spend  the  evening.  On  the  fifteenth  of 
April  the  snow  was  so  deep,  she  says,  "that  the  gentle-^,  '' 
men  called  a  coach  to  bring  the  ladies  home."  In 
September  and  October  of  1857  meetings  were  held  in 
the  lecture  room,  for  the  work  was  cutting  and  fitting 
new  covers  for  the  church  cushions.  These  were  taken 
home  to  be  stitched,  and  returned  for  a  final  effort 
when,  on  October  22,  they  were  stuffed. 

Donation  parties  are  not  mentioned  every  year,  but 
by  way  of  example,  Dr.  Peters  received  in  1851  seventy 
dollars  in  cash  and  forty-five  or  fifty  in  other  things. 
Among  these  was  a  barrel  of  flour  from  the  students,  r 
accompanied  by  these  lines,  composed  by  Robert  Smith 
of  the  class  of  '51,  and  nailed  to  the  top  of  the  barrel: 

"Teacher  divine,  herald  of  truth, 
Accept  this  gift  from  a  band  of  youth 
Who  ask  not  gold  nor  earthly  good 
But  the  prayers  of  their  pastor  for  spiritual  food." 


Page  one  hundred  forty 


The  next  year,  although  it  was  a  very  rainy  day 
and  dark  evening,  Dr.  Peters  received  one  hundred  and 
ten  dollars  and  sixty  cents.  The  next  minister, 
Mr.  Hoisington,  on  one  occasion  received  from  the 
senior  class  of  the  college,  eighteen  dollars,  from  the 
juniors  forty  dollars,  the  sophomores  twenty-five,  and 
the  freshmen  thirty,  which  with  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  from  the  church  and  town  made  two  hundred 
and  seventy-six  dollars.  The  next  year  the  students 
seem  not  to  have  contributed,  but  there  were  received 
one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  in  cash,  perhaps  thirty  . 
dollars  in  other  articles,  "and  they  had  plenty  of  cake." 

The  Maternal  Association  is  first  mentioned  about 
1840  and  had  an  existence  of  twenty  or  thirty  years. 
Mothers  and  older  children  met  in  the  afternoon  at 
various  houses,  for  prayer,  especially  when  there  was 
marked  religious  interest  in  town.  The  diary  gives 
a  list  of  more  than  thirty  members,  with  the  names  and 
birthdays  of  all  their  children.  At  quarterly  meetings 
the  children  recited  psalms,  and  answered  questions  in 
the  catechism.  The  meetings  were  sometimes  called 
"instructive"  and  sometimes  "very  solemn,"  and  the 
chief  thought  in  all  minds  is  evident  from  this  entry: 
"Two  children,  we  hope,  have  been  converted  the  past 
year."  Notice  of  these  meetings  was  given  from  the 
pulpit,  to  the  discomfiture  on  one  occasion,  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Hoisington,  lately  returned  from  India  and 
the  use  of  Indian  dialects,  who,  beginning  badly  and 
growing  more  confused  as  he  went  on,  announced,  for 
Thursday,  a  meeting  of  the  "Female  Mothers'  Maternal  V 

^SStf^^G^ZSSSffB***  tfMHMMMMM^M 

Association." 

"Female  prayer  meetings"  other  than  these,  were 
held  somewhat  irregularly  at  different  houses, 
occasionally  in  the  morning,  but  more  often  in  the 
afternoon,  and  there  were  neighborhood  prayer  meet- 


Page  one  hundred  forty-one 


ings  which  the  women  largely  supported  though  they 
were  conducted  by  men.  For  years,  until  there  was  a 
lecture  room,  the  Tuesday  evening  meeting  was  held 
at  the  house  of  Mrs.  Lucy  Whitman,  who  personally 
presided  over  the  occasion.  With  her  white  cap,  black 
silk  gown  and  folded  white  kerchief,  she  sat  in  her 
rocking  chair  on  one  side  of  the  fireplace,  with  a 
granddaughter  in  a  little  chair  by  her  side.  Opposite 
would  be  Aunt  Maria,  of  the  next  generation,  also  with 
a  daughter  or  granddaughter  of  the  house.  These 
weekly  meetings  were  largely  attended,  the  front 
sitting-room  sometimes  overflowing  into  rooms  beyond. 
In  the  house  of  Mrs.  Benjamin,  on  house  lot  No. 
i,  where  St.  Anthony  Hall  now  stands,  there  was  held 
for  many  years  another  prayer  meeting,  on  Saturday 
nights.  These  were  always  conducted  by  young  men  y 
from  the  college  who,  it  appears  from  the  diary,  were 
often  invited  to  drink  tea  at  the  house  on  Saturday 
and  then  remain  for  the  meeting.  This  was  really  a 
continuation  of  the  meeting  in  Mrs.  Bardwell's  house, 
on  South  street.  Her  kitchen  had  been  put  at  the 
disposal  of  a  company  of  students,  for  a  prayer 
meeting.  After  a  little  she  asked  that  the  door  into 
the  sitting  room  might  be  left  partly  open  that  the 
family  and  a  few  neighbors  might  enjoy  the  service. 
From  this  beginning  a  neighborhood  prayer  meeting  ' 
rose,  with  leaders  always  from  the  college.  At  the 
breaking  up  of  the  household  of  Mrs.  Bardwell,  Mrs. 
Benjamin  opened  her  house  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
names  of  the  leaders  are  always  given  in  the  diary  and 
usually  some  mention  of  the  subject  or  some  reason  in 
the  weather  for  a  small  meeting  or  the  fact  that  the 
attendance  was  only  "pretty  good."  When  you  consider 
that  there  was  service  Sunday  night  in  the  room  over 
the  present  town  library,  Tuesday  night  at  Mrs. 


Page  one  hundred  forty-two 


Whitman's,  a  maternal  meeting  or  other  female  prayer 
meeting  almost  every  Thursday,  it  is  not  perhaps 
wonderful,  that,  on  Saturday  evening,  with  the  two 
long  services  and  Sunday  school  to  follow  the  next 
day,  the  attendance  should  sometimes  be  only  pretty 
good. 

Such  entries  as  these  are  characteristic :  "Mr. 
Chandler  gave  an  interesting  account  of  the  meeting  of 
the  board,  saying  that  they  held  the  meeting  on  Thurs- 
day from  seven  to  eleven  o'clock,  with  a  good  deal  of 
excitement,  but  finally  settled  the  vexed  question  which 
was  about  slavery  among  the  Choctaws."  "Mr.  Arthur 
Perry  and  William  Tatlock  talked  about  Jacob."  "Mr. 
Garfield  led  the  meeting."  "Mr.  Mooar  said  the  work 
was  progressing  in  the  college."  "Hurried,  hurried, 
hurried  all  the  time.  Mr.  Orton  led.  We  have  scarcely 
had  so  pleasant  an  evening  all  winter."  Once,  in 
1857,  she  writes  that  she  did  not  expect  a  meeting,  as 
it  had  been  proposed  that  she  suspend  them  for  a  time 
as  so  few  came,  but  to  her  surprise  there  were,  that 
night,  three  students  and  three  ladies.  But  a  condition 
which  may  have  obtained  during  the  last  year  or  two 
does  not  at  all  describe  the  important  place  this  meeting 
had  held  in  the  community  life.  Mrs.  Benjamin's 
sitting  room,  entered  by  an  outside  east  door,  accom- 
modated some  thirty  people.  Besides  this,  many  of 
the  men  and  boys  sat  in  the  kitchen,  the  door  of  which 
opened  out  at  the  left.  Sometimes  if  it  grew  very 
warm,  from  the  fire,  and  the  six  wlMjlejxLJaiaBS  on 
the  mantel,  and  the  large  lamp  on  the  leader's  table 
between  the  front  windows,  a  door  would  be  opened 
into  the  dark  parlor  and  a  few  chairs  perhaps  pushed 
over  the  sill.  The  hostesses  sat  always  between  the 
fire  and  the  parlor  door.  A  long  sofa,  between  the 
corner  cupboard  and  the  book-case,  was  reserved  for 


Page  one  hundred  forty-three 


the  older  ladies,  and  chairs  were  arranged  in  rows  in 
front  of  this.  The  length  of  the  service  depended  not 
on  the  striking  of  a  clock,  but  on  the  interest  and 
solemnity  of  the  occasion.  Little  boys  sometimes  fell 
asleep  out  of  sight,  in  the  kitchen,  and  one,  six  years 
old,  was  once  overlooked  by  his  family  and  woke  to 
meet  the  stern  and  grieved  reproof  of  Mrs.  Benjamin, 
his  grandmother,  who  argued  from  this  inattention 
dread  things  of  his  eternal  life. 

Mrs.  Perry's  removal  from  town  in  the  spring  of 
1858  put  an  end  to  these  meetings  which  were  so 
distinctly  in  the  hands  of  women  that  they  properly 
come  under  an  account  of  their  activities.  It  should 
also  be  said  that  the  building  of  the  lecture  room  on 
Park  street,  a  little  before  this  time  (1856),  and  the 
transferring  thither  from  Mrs.  Whitman's  of  the 
Tuesday  evening  meeting,  would  in  any  case,  probably, 
have  united  all  the  prayer  meetings  in  one. 

A  foreign  missionary  society  is  first  mentioned  in 
the  diary  in  1848,  and  evidently  took  up  the  work 
dropped  by  the  Female  Charitable  Society,  so  that  we 
have  a  fairly  continuous  record  of  missionary  work 
from  1812.  The  organization  must  have  been  somewhat 
formal  for  there  were  annual  meetings  and  regular 
officers  elected.  Mrs.  Perry  was  the  president  in  1856 
and  collected  seventy-four  dollars  and  eighty-six  cents 
for  the  cause.  Earlier,  in  1851,  she  speaks  of  collecting 
in  the  new  street,  Spring  street,  and  adds,  "There  is  not 
much  of  a  missionary  spirit  there."  Spring  street  was 
opened  in  1847  and  there  were  in  1851  seven  or 
possibly  eight  houses  there.  Through  the  sixties  there 
was  evidently  some  collection  of  funds  and  perhaps  a 
loose  organization.  Miss  Elizabeth  Pierce,  a  sister-in- 
law  of  Dr.  Calvin  Durfee,  formed,  at  any  rate,  a 
missionary  circle  for  young  women  and  girls.  At  each 


Page  one  hundred  forty-four 


meeting  an  offering  was  dropped  into  a  varnished  box 
decorated  with  pressed  autumn  leaves,  and  each 
member  as  she  stepped  forward  for  this  purpose, 
described  how  the  money  had  been  earned.  One  child 
of  eight  cherished  resentment  for  years  because  an 
older  member  laughed  aloud  at  her  report  that  her 
dime  had  been  earned  by  "rocking  the  cradle."  Small 
bunches  of  flowers  were  also  brought  to  these  meetings 
and  afterwards  distributed  to  the  sick. 

In   1871   the  modern  auxiliary  was  formed,  with 
Mrs.  Chadbourne  as  the  first  president.     No  records 
have  been  preserved  of  the  first  seven  years  except  that  t 
the  total  offering  was  four  hundred  and  nine  dollars  [ 
and  fifteen  cents.  In  1878  this  auxiliary  associated  itself  I 
with  nine  others  to  form  the  Berkshire  Branch  of  the 
Woman's  Board,  and  the  thirty-seven  years  from  that 
time  to  this  are  fully  covered  by  records.     The  early 
presidents  were  Mrs.  Chadbourne,  Mrs.  Sewall,  Mrs.  | 
Lincoln  and   Mrs.   Bascom.     The  offerings    for   the  I 
thirty-seven  years  have  been  between  eight  and  nine/ 
thousand  dollars,  not  including  very  considerable  gifts 
from  the  In  His  Name  Society.     This  association  01 
the  younger  women  was  organized  in  1878  largely  by 
the  influence  of  Mrs.  Sewall  and  is  last  reported  by  the 
Berkshire  Branch  in  1894.    There  were  sometimes  as 
many   as   thirty  members   and   the   reports   of   their 
monthly  meetings  show  most  careful  preparation  and  a 
serious   interest   in   the   work   they   had   undertaken. 
"Serious"  is  a  rather  significant  word  in  any  description 
of  the  work  of  these  years.    This  is  not  to  disparage 
the  attitude  of  more  recent  times  but  one  can  not  read 
the  annual  addresses  of  Mrs.  Lincoln  or  the  prayer 
''  services  of  Mrs.  Chadbourne  ^without  being  conscious 
•  that  they  expressed  an  unusual  sense  of  a  very  solemn 
'and    personal    responsibility^/  A   most   characteristic 


Page  one  hundred  forty-five 


sentence  from  Mrs.  Lincoln  is  this:  "Time  in  his 
unceasing  flight  has  brought  us  as  a  society  to  the 
close  of  another  year  of  mission  work.  Today  we  seal 
up  its  record,  to  meet  us  again,  individually,  at  the 
great  day  of  final  account.  With  thankful  hearts  we 
rejoice  in  the  measure  of  success  which  has  crowned 
our  efforts,  but  we  do  not  forget  that  we  consider 
results  alone,  while  in  another  book  the  recording 
angel's  pen  has  taken  note  of  our  abUity  to  do,  and  the 
motives  actuating  us,  and  according  to  these  has 
summed  up  his  account.  How  will  the  books  com- 
pare?" Again  she  begins  her  report:  "The  annual 
return  of  this  day  calls  upon  us  once  more  to  give 
account  of  our  stewardship.  What  have  we  wrought 
for  the  Lord  during  the  year  that  is  passed  ?" 

You  will  remember  that  during  the  life  of  the 
Female  Charitable  Society,  from  1812  to  1849,  money 
was  collected  each  year  for  some  home  missionary 
society.  That  is  the  last  we  know  of  any  organized 
home  missionary  work  for  many  years.  Such  activity 
next  appears  (about  1880)  as  an  adjunct  of  the  Ladies' 
Benevolent  Society.  The  money  raised  was  spent  for 
clothing  and  books  sent  in  barrels  to  western  ministers 
and  their  families.  Suits  and  dresses  were  made  or 
repaired  and  unbleached  cotton  made  into  sheets  and 
pillow  cases.  The  first  gift  of  money  to  the  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  in  Boston  was  acknowledged 
in  1884,  and  an  auxiliary  of  this  Boston  society,  with 
Mrs.  Denison  as  treasurer,  appears  as  a  department  of 
the  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society  in  the  directory  of  the 
church  printed  in  1890.  This  combination  continued 
until  1895,  when  for  three  years  no  benevolent  society 
is  reported.  For  1895  and  1896  there  was  a  separate 
organization  for  home  missionary  work,  under  the 
direction  of  Mrs.  James  White,  and  in  1897  there  was 


Page  one  hundred  forty-six 


formed  from  the  union  of  the  home  and  foreign 
societies  the  present  Woman's  Missionary  Society, 
which,  by  an  economy  of  organization  conducts  both 
branches  of  the  work  with  the  smallest  possible  number 
of  officers.  Most  of  us  have  had  some  pleasant 
associations  with  the  missionary  meetings  of  this 
church.  In  the  seventies  they  were  usually  held  with 
Mrs.  Chadbourne,  in  the  president's  house;  in  the 
eighties,  often  with  Mrs.  Sewall,  but  changing  from 
month  to  month  to  Mrs.  James  White,  Mrs.  Arthur 
L.  Perry  and  Mrs.  N.  F.  Smith.  Through  most  of  the 
nineties  the  house  of  Mrs.  Mark  Hopkins  was  mission- 
ary ground.  Beginning  with  the  nineteen  hundreds 
the  usual  place  was  the  lecture  room  or  "the  rear  east 
room  of  the  church,"  which  was  the  secretary's 
euphuism  for  the  kitchen.  For  two  or  three  years  Mrs. 
Clayton  received  us  at  the  manse,  and  for  the  last  five 
years  we  have  met  with  Mrs.  Arthur  L.  Perry.  In 
varied  form — with  singing  or  without,  with  many 
prayers  or  few,  with  formal  papers  or  with  simple 
talks,  the  subject  of  the  world,  its  wonders,  its  religions 
and  its  needs,  has  been  thus  regularly  presented. 

At  the  close  of  Mrs.  Lucy  Perry's  diary  we  left  the 
women  stuffing  cushions  for  the  church  pews.  From 
that  time  on,  with  or  without  a  name,  they  have  carried 
forward  the  work  which  in  any  church  women 
naturally  assume.  In  the  sixties  there  were  quilting 
parties  in  private  houses,  when  the  young  women 
stayed  to  supper  and  the  young  men  came  in  for  the 
evening.  Or  if  there  were  no  quilting,  each  one  carried 
her  own  knitting  with  the  dime  which  stamped  the 
meeting  as  benevolent.  Great  rivalries  there  were  in 
matter  of  entertainment  and  much  asking  for  recipes 
when  such  good  things  as  Mrs.  Joseph  White's  bread- 
cake  were  passed.  In  the  sixties,  too,  they  scraped  lint 


Page  one  hundred  forty-seven 


for  the  hospitals  and  made  garments  to  be  sent  to  the 
front.  Just  after  the  war,  to  meet  some  need  now 
forgotten,  there  were  tableaux  in  the  dining  room  of 
the  Mansion  House,  with  a  too  realistic  dying  soldier 
and  with  Robert  Clark  as  an  Indian  hunter,  carrying 
on  his  shoulders  a  deer  from  the  collection  in  Jackson 
Hall.  A  little  later  there  were  tableaux  vivants  in  old 
Goodrich  Haii,  where  the  Mistletoe  Bough  was  sung, 
and  Miss  Abby  Mather  in  Mrs.  Mark  Hopkins'  wedding 
dress  hid  in  the  fatal  chest ;  and  Miss  Fanny  Whitman; 
of  the  wonderful  hair,  with  James  Canfield,  later 
chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nebraska,  as  priest, 
performed  "The  taking  of  the  Veil."  In  the  sixties 
there  was  much  work  to  be  done  in  renovating  the 
white  church.  A  new  carpet  in  black  and  red  diamonds 
especially  made  in  Lowell  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Joseph  White,  was  put  down,  and  a  new  Bible  for  the 
pulpit  earned  by  the  efforts  of  the  Busy  Bee  Society. 
This  association  of  little  girls  had  planned  to  raise  their 
money  by  means  of  a  fair  on  a  certain  Wednesday 
evening,  but  when  it  suddenly  developed  that  the 
youngest,  the  one  with  the  brownest  eyes  and  the  most 
appealing  smile  must  leave  town  that  day  for  a  family 
visit,  making  Tuesday,  the  prayer  meeting  night,  the 
only  alternative,  they  climbed  in  a  body  to  the  study  of 
the  Rev.  Mason  Noble,  the  minister.  On  Sunday 
morning  this  notice  was  given  from  the  pulpit: 
"Brethren,  I  think  we  must  change  the  night  of  our 
prayer  meeting.  You  know  how  we  all  feel  about  our 
prayer  meeting,  but  when  the  little  girls  came  to  my 
study  and  sat  on  the  arm  of  my  chair  and  told  me  how 
necessary  it  was  to  have  their  fair  on  Tuesday  night, 
you  know,  brethren,  I  had  to  put  off  the  prayer  meet- 
\ing."  When  the  church  was  burned  in  1866,  the  carpet 
was  saved,  with  the  pulpit  and  the  pews,  and  became 


Page  one  hundred  forty-eight 


part  of  the  furnishing  of  the  brick  church,  dedicated  in 
1869.  The  money  from  the  fair  was  spent  for  books 
for  the  Sunday  school  library,  for  a  gold  watch  chain 
for  Dr.  A.  M.  Smith,  the  Sunday  school  superintendent, 
and  enough  was  laid  aside  for  the  purchase  of  a  hand- 
some Bible  which  was  first  used  in  the  brick  church  and 
bears  the  date  1869.  That  is  the  date  too  of  the  coming 
to  this  town  of  Mrs.  Snyder  and  her  family.  Miss 
Frances  and  Miss  Marcia  Snyder  were  for  the  next 
twenty  years  closely  identified  with  every  activity  of  the 
church.  The  first  Mrs.  Keyes  Danforth  is  perhaps 
best  remembered  for  her  influence  over  the  members 
of  the  Busy  Bee  Society.  Every  other  Saturday 
afternoon  they  spent  with  her  in  Buxton,  radiantly 
happy  every  minute  while  she  talked  to  them,  and 
physically  satisfied  with  her  good  suppers,  of  which 
they  now  remember  especially  the  apple  tarts. 

In  spite  of  great  effort  a  considerable  debt  was 

incurred  by  the  building  of  the  brick  church,  and  the 

next  ten  years   are  filled  with  the  activities  of  the 

women,  directed  toward  its  payment.    Many  felt  that 

in  view  of  such  an  encumbrance  it  was  unseemly  to 

assume  also  the  burden  of  paying  for  an  organ,  but 

in  one  way  and  another  that  too,  was  accomplished. 

/  Some  small  part  at  least  of  the  organ  came  from  the 

''  singing  in  the  lecture  room,  by  members  of  the  choir 

and  their  friends,  of  the  Death  and  Burial  of  Cock 

Robin.       In     long    black     waterproofs     the     singers 

advanced   in  procession,    following  a   draped  wheel- 

'  barrow  on  which  reclined  a  very  limp  and  songless 

r  robin.     Dr.   Mark  Hopkins   is   remembered  to   have 

\  demurred   a  little  at   this   ceremony,   hoping  that  it 

J  would  not  appear  to  any  one  as  making  light  of  a 

funeral. 


Page  one  hundred  forty-nine 


These  were  the  winters  when  evening  dime  socials 
were  almost  as  interesting  as  moving  pictures  and  the 
constant  use  of  the  game  of  twenty  questions  sharpened 
the  wits  of  students  and  townspeople  alike.  One  person 
still  remembers  the  selection  for  questioning  of  "The 
last  drop  of  water  which  went  over  the  Falls  of  Minne- 
haha  in  the  year  1776,"  and  recalls  her  chagrin  at  not 
being  able  to  tell,  at  a  critical  moment,  the  state  in 
which  the  Falls  of  Minnehaha  are  to  be  found.  Miss 
Abby  Mather  was  the  treasurer,  appointed  to  serve, 
she  used  to  say,  "until  death  or  marriage,"  and  with 
endless  joking  she  gathered  the  dimes  into  her  stout 
little  bag — until  it  was  marriage.  There  was  a  great 
Dickens  party  at  the  Kellogg  House,  with  nearly  the 
whole  church  in  the  opening  procession.  Dick 
Swiveller  is  now  the  pastor  of  a  church  in  Brooklyn, 
Mr.  Dombey  was  president  of  a  state  normal  school, 
Captain  Cuttle  taught  Hebrew  in  a  theological  semin- 
ary, Mr.  F's  aunt  is  a  minister's  wife  and  The  Little 
Marchioness  writes  these  lines.  There  was  also  a 
Washington  supper  at  the  Mansion  House,  and,  in  the 
lecture  room,  a  loan  collection,  to  which  wa's  sent 
everything  from  Mr.  Leake's  best  paintings  and  rugs 
to  the  spinning  wheels  and  warming  pans  from  our 
attics.  At  a  costume  party  late  in  that  period, 
Dr.  Durfee,  much  impressed  by  the  splendor  of 
raiment  he  saw  all  about  him,  after  consulting  Mrs. 
Curtis,  the  president,  that  year,  slipped  away  to  his 
house  and  returned  wearing  a  padded  Japanese  silk 
dressing  gown,  a  recent  gift  from  David  Dudley  Field./ 
For  the  rest  of  the  evening  not  an  Indian,  Queen  Mary 
or  Puritan  walked  the  floor  more  complacent  or  enter- 
tained than  he.  C* 

In  the  year  1881-82  all  debts  are  said  in  the  records 
to  be  cleared  from  the  church,  and  the  sum  of  fifty 


Page  one  hundred  fifty 


dollars  left  in  the  hands  of  the  minister  was  passed 
over  to  the  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society  to  serve  as  a 
nucleus  for  the  expense  of  a  new  furnace.  For  the 
furnace  they  worked  three  years  and  (1883)  were  just 
putting  it  in,  when  there  came  the  gift  of  a  new  carpet 
for  the  church  from  Col.  Daniel  A.  Jones  of  Chicago, 
and  warm  and  clean  they  sat  down  to  rest  from  their 
labors.  There  had  been  that  year,  eleven  sociables 
with  an  average  attendance  of  forty,  and  the  only  point 
the  secretary  deplores  is  their  inability  to  bring  in  the 
people  on  the  edge  of  the  town.  "If  all  who  enjoy  new 
furnaces  and  new  carpets  and  freshly  tinted  walls 
i would  only  come  and  help!"  The  rest  was  not  long. 
\The  old  carpet  was  soon  resewed  and  laid  in  the  lecture 
room,  and  eight  sociables  provided  the  eighty-three 
dollars  and  forty-two  cents  necessary  for  papering  and 
further  repairing  of  the  room  (1884).  In  the  year 
1885-86  the  secretary  reports:  "We  have  had  two 
sociables  this  year  and  well  attended,  but  the  Ladies' 
Benevolent  Society  has  felt  less  need  of  keeping  up 
these  gatherings  since  the  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavor  has  been  doing  so  much,  with  its  other  work, 
to  promote  the  social  interests  of  the  church."  In  that 
year  two  hundred  and  sixty-two  dollars  and  twenty- 
five  cents  were  raised  by  subscription  for  new  pulpit 
furniture  and  pew  cushions.  The  three  new  chairs 
were  first  used  on  Baccalaureate  Sunday,  1886,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  old  sofa  disappeared  from  behind 
the  lecture  room  desk. 

But  carpets  that  have  come  through  a  fire,  been 
used  seventeen  years  in  one  place  and  five  in  another, 
need  a  good  deal  of  attention,  so  in  1888  the  lecture 
room  carpet  was  taken  up  and  cleaned  and  patched 
and  pieced  and  put  down.  You  will  remember  that 
this  was  not  a  matter  for  Sloane's  men  from  New  York, 


Page  one  hundred  fifty-one 


'***  but  that  members  of  the  society  sat  on  the  floor  and 
sewed  the  long  seams,  stitched  on  the  patches,  and 
kneeling,  pounded  in  the  tacks.  Besides  this,  the 
church  study  was  cleaned  and  repapered,  the  old  church 
cushions  cut  over  and  fitted  to  the  gallery  seats,  the 
pulpit  cushions  recovered  and  the  little  room  between 
the  church  and  the  lecture  room  furnished  with  a  good 
cook  stove  and  fitted  up  for  "a  very  comfortable 
kitchen."  It  was  perfectly  dark  and  it  was  draughty 
and  it  was  freezing  cold,  but  though  a  poor  thing,  it 
was  our  own  and  it  was  our  first,  and  in  the  enthusiasm 
of  acquisition,  Miss  Fanny  Snyder,  the  secretary, 
reports  it  as  "a  very  comfortable  kitchen."  Among 
other  furnishings  of  the  room  are  the  spoons  marked 
L.  B.  S.  which  were  bought  at  this  time. 

The  year  1890  began  with  the  first  New  Year's 
dinner,  an  observance  which  has  never  failed.  Even 
in  the  three  years  when  no  benevolent  society  was 
reported,  the  plans  were  carried  out  by  a  few  women 
who  were  unwilling  to  see  so  good  a  custom  let  slip. 
Year  by  year  this  dinner  becomes  more  firmly  estab- 
lished in  the  life  of  the  church,  and  the  attendance 
1  increases.  For  the  rest,  the  decade  of  the  nineties 
was  characterized  by  some  changes  of  organization, 
but  much  of  the  activity  seems  to  have  centered  about 
the  packing  of  missionary  barrels.  Mrs.  Lincoln 
writes  of  one  year :  "We  have  held  neither  fair,  festival 
nor  dime  social,  but  have  trusted  for  means  to  carry 
forward  our  work  to  a  sense  of  personal  responsi- 
bility." The  sense  of  personal  responsibility  wasj 
strong  in  the  women  of  that  generation.  If  there  was 
'•money  to  raise  they  raised  it  by  personal  appeal,  and 
if  boxes  were  to  be  prepared  that  was  done  with  vigor. 
Mrs.  N.  F.  Smith's  house  was  the  scene  of  many 
packings.  Barrels  were  used  instead  of  boxes,  for  the 


Page  one  hundred  fifty-two 


sake  of  economy,  and  new  clothing  was  more  the 
exception  than  now,  but  such  things  as  came  in  were 
gathered  from  a  larger  representation  of  the  society, 
and  one  person  would  never  have  been  allowed  to  do 
all  the  packing. 

In  November,  1897,  after  three  years  of  unofficial 
life  of  which  we  have  already  spoken,  the  name 
Benevolent  Society  was  allowed  to  lapse,  and  under  the 
new  designation,  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  the  women 
began  work  again.  They  elected  Mrs.  Morrow,  presi- 
dent, and  Mrs.  Robinson,  the  minister's  wife,  was 
their  secretary.  The  following  June  (1898)  both  of 
these  officers  moved  from  town,  but  nothing  was  done 
to  fill  their  places  until  it  was  again  November  and 
there  were  new  elections.  At  this  annual  meeting, 
plans  were  also  made  for  a  reception  to  Mr.  Butler, 
the  new  minister,  and  carried  out  under  the  new 
officers,  Mrs.  Samuel  J.  Kellogg  being  the  president. 
In  1894  the  lecture  room  was  furnished  with  chairs 
instead  of  settees,  but  the  best  new  thing  of  the  nineties 
was  the  kitchen,  neither  dark  nor  cold  this  time,  built 
at  an  expense  of  about  eight  hundred  dollars,  in  1898. 

The  question  of  a  parsonage  became  vital  during 
this  year  and  the  next.  In  the  early  forties  Mr.  Charles 
Benjamin  had  sold  to  the  church,  for  a  parsonage,  the 
house  where  Professor  Russell  now  lives,  and  this  was 
used  by  both  Mr.  Savage  and  Dr.  Peters,  passing  out 
of  such  service  in  the  fifties,  when  Dr.  Peters  bought 
land  and  built  a  house  of  his  own.  Mr.  Sewall  also 
had  owned  a  house,  but  many  reasons  made  it  seem 
increasingly  advisable  that  a  parsonage  should  now  be 
added  to  the  parish  property.  A  nucleus  for  this  fund 
had  been  given  in  Mr.  Bassett's  time  by  a  member  of 
the  college  faculty,  who  preached  for  two  Sundays 
with  the  understanding  that  the  fifty  dollars  should  be 


Page  one  hundred  fifty-three 


set  apart  for  this  purpose.  As  soon  as  the  plans  were 
established  the  women  began  to  give  definite  help. 
Under  the  management  of  Miss  Alice  Carter  a  play  was 
given  which  brought  in  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
dollars.  A  fair,  in  1900,  gained  more  than  eight 
hundred  dollars.  In  one  way  or  another,  twelve  hun- 
dred dollars  were  thus  added  to  the  building  fund.  In 
1903  the  house  was  partially  furnished  for  Mr. 
Clayton's  use,  at  an  expense  of  seven  hundred  dollars. 
Since  that  time,  for  repairs  and  refurnishing,  nearly 
a  thousand  more  have  been  spent.  The  Ladies'  Aid 
Society  has  therefore  a  practical  interest  of  nearly 
three  thousand  dollars  in  the  parsonage.  During  the 
same  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  nearly  two  thousand 
dollars  more  have  been  earned,  for  the  cost  of  the 
kitchen,  for  a  piano,  and  the  care  of  the  lecture  room. 
The  records  of  the  activities  of  recent  years  may  lack 
something  of  the  interest  and  quaintness  of  the  books 
of  one  hundred  years  ago,  but  the  practical  advantage 
of  a  society  capable  of  contributing  to  permanent 
equipment  nearly  five  thousand  dollars  in  that  length 
of  time  is  not  to  be  gainsaid.  The  largest  income  has 
been  derived  from  Christmas  sales.  This  custom  was 
begun  in  1903,  and  nearly  seventeen  hundred  dollars 
have  been  thus  raised.  The  amounts  have  varied  from 
fifty-four  dollars  in  1903  to  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
five  in  1909.  This  has  been  accomplished  under  the 
able  supervision  of  Mrs.  N.  H.  Sabin,  who  became 
president  in  1901,  and  Mrs.  E.  H.  Botsford,  who  holds 
the  office  now. 

The   great   generosity   of   Mr.    and    Mrs.    Robert 
Cluett  has  freed  our  hands  from  certain  tiresome  forms 
of  work.    The  old  red  carpet,  made  into  rugs  and  sold,  V 
will  never  have  to  be  cleaned  or  patched  again.     We 
have  almost  forgotten  already  how  dusty  the  gallery 


Page  one  hundred  fifty-four 


cushions  used  to  be  and  how  hard  it  was  to  keep  in 
order  the  various  dark  closets.  Released  from  these 
things  our  hands  are  made  ready  to  meet  the  new  needs 
that  will  always  come  as  we  follow  that  old  counsel: 
"Get  thy  spindle  and  thy  distaff  ready  and  God  will 
give  thee  flax." 

The  next  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  may  add 
the  glamour  of  strangeness  to  the  story  of  the  work 
we  are  doing  now.  When  the  accounts  of  our 
Christmas  sales,  our  chain  teas,  and  our  New  Year's 
dinners  have  to  be  sought  for  in  dusty  files  and  attic 
boxes,  who  knows  how  odd  and  out  of  fashion  they 
may  seem?  Our  very  names  may  have  the  flavor  of 
Mehitabel,  Prudence  and  Deodamus,  and  the  language 
of  our  annual  reports  rouse  little  smiles. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  in  this  sketch  to 
distinguish  the  service  of  one  person  more  than 
another.  Those  over-worked  modifiers  "efficient," 
"capable,"  "earnest"  and  "energetic"  have  applied  to 
some  of  all  the  women  from  our  great  grandmothers 
down;  and  if  there  were,  besides,  others  only  well- 
meaning  but  ineffective,  it  is  not  for  us  now  to  try  to 
distribute  the  adjectives.  Year  by  year,  each  in  her 
generation,  they  built  themselves  into  the  life  of  this 
church,  as  year  by  year,  for  strength  or  for  weakness, 
we  also  build. 

GRACE  PERRY. 


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THE  HISTORICAL  COLLECTION 


BOOKS  AND  PAMPHLETS: 

Church  manual  of  1849,  1868,  1891,  1902. 
Collection  of  old  books. 
Boyhood  Reminiscences,  Keyes  Danforth. 
New  England  Primer. 
Origins  in  Williamstown,  Arthur  L.  Perry. 
Williams  College  and  Foreign  Missions, 
John  H.  Hewitt. 

CHURCH  RECORDS: 

Seth  Swift's  records,  1779-1807. 

Deed  of  two-fifths  of  a  pew  given  to  Erastus  Noble, 

1811. 

A  few  leaves  of  the  Gridley  records,  1826. 
Part  of  Mr.  Gridley's  letter  of  resignation. 
Church  records,  Vol.  3,  1834-1847. 
Church  records,  Vol.  4,  1848-1866. 
Records  of  the  first  Parish,  1829-1856. 
Record  of  marriages,  1779-1806. 
Journal  of  Mason  Noble,  1865-1866. 
Records  of  the  Female  Charitable  Society,  1812-1849. 

DAGUERREOTYPES  : 

Mr.  Henry  B.  Curtis. 
Mrs.  Henry  B.  Curtis. 
Mr.  Jeremiah  Hosford. 
Mrs.  Jeremiah  Hosford. 

HOUSEHOLD  FURNISHINGS  OF  EARLY  TIMES  : 
Bed  warmer. 
Bee  box. 
Candle  molds. 
Chairs  from  the  Whitman  house. 


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Cooking  utensils,  gridiron,  toaster,  waffle  iron. 

Cradle  used  by  the  Torrey  family. 

Foot  stool  of  Rev.  Absalom  Peters. 

Hetchel. 

Samplers. 

Spinning  wheel  of  Prudence  Simonds. 

Swift. 

Trunk  of  Anthony  Saunders. 

Yarn  reel. 

Woven  coverlet. 

LISTS : 

List  of  Deacons,  with  dates. 

Hist  of  Ministers,  with  dates. 

List  of  Missionaries  associated  with  this  congregation. 

Original  subscription  lists : 

For  the  church  of  1798. 

For  the  church  bell  in  1798. 

For  the  church  of  1866. 

For  the  organ  of  the  church  of  1866. 

PAINTINGS  : 

Residence  of  Mrs.  Ruth  Seymour  Benjamin. 
Williamstown  street,  looking  east. 
Williamstown  street,  looking  west. 

PHOTOGRAPHS  (Persons)  : 
Dr.  Addison  Ballard. 
Dr.  John  Bascom. 
Rev.  Austin  B.  Bassett. 
Mrs.  Ruth  Seymour  Benjamin. 
Mr.  Samuel  Bridges. 
Mrs.  Samuel  Bridges. 
Mr.  John  Brookman. 
Mrs.  John  Brookman. 
Rev.  Willis  H.  Butler. 
Rev.  Charles  William  Calhoun. 
Deacon  Robert  Clark. 
Rev.  Francis  T.  Clayton. 
Mr.  Harvey  T.  Cole. 
Mrs.  Harvey  T.  Cole. 


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Mr.  John  M.  Cole. 

Mrs.  John  M.  Cole. 

Mr.  Henry  B.  Curtis. 

Judge  Keyes  Dan  forth. 

Dr.  Calvin  Durfee. 

Rev.  George  Alfred  Ford. 

Rev.  Lewis  A.  Gould. 

Dr.  Edward  Dorr  Griffin. 

Dr.  Edward  Herrick  Griffin. 

Dr.  Nathaniel  Herrick  Griffin. 

Rev.  Henry  Richard  Hoisington. 

Mr.  Jeremiah  Hosford. 

Mrs.  Jeremiah  Hosford. 

Mrs.  Lucy  C.  Lincoln. 

Professor  Edward  Lasell. 

Mr.  Charles  H.  Mather. 

Miss  Frances  L.  Mather. 

Rev.  Mason  Noble. 

Rev.  Mason  Noble  and  his  four  sons. 

Dr.  Arthur  L.  Perry. 

Rev.  Henry  T.  Perry. 

Mrs.  Roxanna  Bixby  Pierson. 

Stephen  Pratt,  driving  the  old  red  stage. 

Mrs.  Susan  Calhoun  Ransom. 

Dr.  Henry  L.  Sabin. 

Mrs.  Henry  L.  Sabin. 

Rev.  William  Henry  Sanders. 

Rev.  Albert  C.  Sewall. 

Mrs.  Albert  C.  Sewall. 

Col.  Benjamin  Simonds. 

Rev.  William  Slade. 

Deacon  James  Smedley. 

Mrs.  James  Smedley. 

Dr.  A.  M.  Smith. 

Mrs.  Nathan  F.  Smith. 

Mrs.  Margaret  Bixby  Strong  and  her  son, 

Mark  Hopkins  Strong. 
Mrs.  Submit  Bixby  Strong. 
Mr.  Edwin  Talmadge. 
Miss  Hannah  Talmadge. 
Mr.  Merritt  Walley. 
Rev.  Edward  P.  Wells. 


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Mrs.  Edward  P.  Wells. 

Hon.  Joseph  White. 

Mrs.  Joseph  White. 

Governor  Charles  S.  Whitman. 

Mr.  John  Whitman. 

Mrs.  Seymour  Whitman. 

Williams  College  Faculty  in  the  Fifties. 

Village  choir  under  Dr.  A.  M.  Smith. 

PHOTOGRAPHS  (Buildings,  etc.)  : 
Church  of  1798  (exterior). 
Church  of  1869  (interior). 
Church  of  1914  (exterior). 
Mansion  House. 
Residence  of  Rev.  Seth  Swift. 
Store  of  Charles  H.  Mather. 
Village  street. 
Walden  house,  on  the  site  of  the  church  of  1869. 

PORTRAITS  : 

Dr.  Calvin  Durfee. 

Professor  Albert  Hopkins. 

President  Mark  Hopkins. 

Hon.  Daniel  Noble. 

Dr.  Henry  L.  Sabin. 

Dr.  Luther  D.  Woodbridge. 

Mrs.  Luther  D.  Woodbridge. 

PRINTS  (colored)  : 

Early  college  buildings. 

PROGRAMS  : 

Concert  at  the  dedication  of  the  organ,  August  24,  1876. 
Mystery  Play,  1908. 

RELICS  CONNECTED  WITH  THE  VARIOUS  CHURCH  BUILDINGS: 
Baton  of  Dr.  A.  M.  Smith. 
Busy  Bee  Bible  and  other  old  Bibles. 
Cane  made  from  the  wood  of  the  white  church  (1798). 
Contribution  box  from  the  white  church. 


Page  one  hundred  fifty-nine 


Door  knob  from  the  white  church. 

Foot  stove  used  by  the  Hopkins  family  in  the  white 

church. 

Fragment  of  the  old  bell. 
Hymn  book  from  the  white  church. 
Lamps  from  the  Park  street  lecture  room. 
Pewter  communion  service. 
Plates  from  the  old  silver  communion  service. 
Pulpit  and  three  chairs  from  the  white  church,  used 

after  the  fire,  in  the  brick  church. 
Pulpit  chairs  from  the  brick  church. 
Samples  of  old  carpets. 


Page  one  hundred  sixty 


PA3TORS 


Rev.  Whitman  Welch  1765-1776 

Rev.  Seth  Swift  1779-1807 

Rev.  Walter  King   1813-1815 

Rev.  Ralph  W.  Gridley 1816-1834 

Rev.  Joseph  Alden,  D.D 1834-1836 

Rev.  Albert  Smith  1836-1838 

Rev.  Albert  Hopkins  1838-1839 

Rev.  Amos  Savage 1840-1843 

Rev.  Absalom  Peters,  D.D 1844-1853 

Rev.  Henry  R.  Hoisington  1853-1856 

Rev.  Addison  Ballard,   D.D 1857-1864 

Rev.  Mason  Noble,  D.D 1865-1866 

Rev.  Edward  P.  Wells 1867-1868 

Rev.  Albert  Hopkins 1869-1872 

Rev.  Albert  C.  Sewall   1872-1886 

Rev.  Austin  B.  Bassett 1887-1891 

Rev.  William  Slade  1891-1897 

Rev.  R.  A.  Robinson  1897-1898 

Rev.  Willis  H.  Butler 1898-1903 

Rev.  Francis  T.  Clayton   1903-1909 

Rev.  Percy  Martin 1909-1913 

Rev.  John   DePeu    1913- 


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DEACONS 


James  Meacham  1784 

Nathan  Wheeler   1813 

Ebenezer  Stratton   1784-1814 

Benjamin  Skinner   1806-1828 

Zadoc  Ford    1806-1834 

Deodatus  Noble 1814-1833 

Levi   Smedley    1828-1849 

Andrew  Beers  1828-1836 

Cheney  Taft 1834-1838 

Henry  L.  Sabin 1834-1884 

William  Dickinson  1834-1836 

James  Smedley 1838-1892 

Asahel  Foote     1838-1882 

Joseph  White 1882-1890 

Robert  Clark  1882-1898,  1899-1910 

Charles  H.  Mather 1882-1896,  1898-1902 

Luther  D.  Woodbridge 1895-1895 

Bliss  Perry 1893-1894 

George  B.  Waterman.  .1894-1897,  1902-1906,  1008-1912,  1914- 

T.  Nelson  Dale 1896-1900 

Henry  B.  Curtis  1897-1900 

Charles  S.  Cole   1900-1904,  1910-1914 

E.  Herbert  Botsford  1901-1905 

Carleton  G.  Smith  1904-1908,  1909-1913 

Perry  A.  Smedley  1905-1909,  1913- 

Frederick  H.  Howard   1906-1910 

Franklin  Carter   1910- 

Vanderpool  Adriance   1912- 

(In  1895  the  term  of  office  for  deacons 
was  limited  to  four  years.) 


Page  one  hundred  sixty-two 


FOREIGN  MISSIONARIES 

who  were  connected  with  the  church  by  membership  or 
(previous  to  1859)  by  act  of  worship;  together  with  a  few 
who  were  sent  by  the  American  Board  to  the  American 
Indians. 

Samuel  Parker   Oregon 

Gordon  Hall    India 

Samuel  J.  Mills Africa  and  Home 

Luther  Rice India 

Alfred  Wright   Choctaws 

Jonas  King  Greece 

John  C.  Brigham South  America 

William  Richards  Hawaiian  Islands 

Dwight  Baldwin Hawaiian  Islands 

David  O.  Allen  India 

William  Hervey India 

Hollis  Reed India 

Nathan  Brown   India 

Harvey  K.  Hitchcock  Hawaiian  Islands 

Henry  R.  Hoisington Ceylon 

Samuel  Hutchings   India 

David  B.  Lyman Hawaiian  Islands 

David  White  Africa 

Simeon  H.  Calhoun  Syria 

Charles  Robinson  Siam 

Lowell  Smith  Hawaiian  Islands 

Jesse  Lockwood   Cherokees 

David  N.  Sheldon  France 

Nathan  Benjamin  Greece  and  Turkey 

John  Dunbar  Pawnees 

William  Tracy   India 

Nathaniel  M.  Crane India 

Gushing  Eells Oregon 

Ozro  French  India 

Worcester  Willey Cherokees 

David  T.  Stoddard  .  .  Persia 


Page  one  hundred  sixty-three 


Henry  M.  Scudder India 

Eliphalet  Whittlesey  Hawaiian  Islands 

James  Herrick   India 

Henry  A.  Ford West  Africa 

Dwight  W.  Marsh Turkey 

William  A.  Benton   Syria 

John  C.  Strong Choctaws 

Joseph  K.  Wight China 

Jacob  Best West  Africa 

Joshua  E.  Ford  Syria 

Cyrus  T.  Mills Ceylon 

David  Rood South  Africa 

Stephen  Bush Siam 

William  W.  Eddy Syria 

Justin  W.  Parsons Turkey 

Hyman  A.  Wilder South  Africa 

Frederick  H.  Brewster China 

George  W.  Coan Persia 

Marshall  D.  Sanders Ceylon 

Eli  Corwin Hawaiian  Islands 

Edward  G.  Beckwith Hawaiian  Islands 

Joseph  D.  Strong  • Hawaiian  Islands 

Jerre  L.  Lyons  Syria 

John  K.  Harris Choctaws 

Charles  M.  Hyde Hawaiian  Islands 

Jacob  W.  Marcusson Turkey 

Stephen  C.  Pixley Africa 

William  S.  Potter Choctaws 

Bela  N.  Seymour  Marquesas  Islands 

Walter  H.  Clark Africa 

Ephraim  P.  Roberts  Micronesia 

David  C.  Scudder India 

George  T.  Washburn India 

Simeon  F.  Woodin China 

Luther  T.  Burbank Turkey 

James  M.  Alexander Hawaiian  Islands 

Samuel  R.  Butler  Labrador 

John  T.  Gulick China  and  Japan 

Henry  C.  Haskell Turkey 

Henry  A.  Schauffler Austria 

William  W.  Chapin India 


Page  one  hundred  sixty-four 


Samuel  H.  Kellogg  India 

*  Chauncey  Goodrich China 

Frederick  Hicks South  America 

George  C.  Raynolds Turkey 

Patrick  L.  Garden Siam 

Henry  T.  Perry Turkey 

Charles  W.  Calhoun Syria 

James  E.  Tracy India 

William  H.  Sanders Africa 

Mrs.  Mary  P.  Ford  India 

Elizabeth  Morley China 

^  Fannie  W.  Tracy  India 

'•-'Susan  C.  Ransom  South  Africa 

Helen  C.  Vandyck  • Syria 

Alfred  Snelling  Mortlock  Islands 


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UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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